How is the Worthing economy performing, and what are the key policy issues facing the city?
This factsheet compares Worthing to the five most similar European cities in size and industrial structure. These are: Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), Würzburg (Germany), Apeldoorn (Germany), Enschede (Netherlands), Pau (France)
Comparing cities in this way helps us to understand more about how well UK cities are competing on an international scale because it groups cities with similar industrial structures, rather than on their resulting economic performance. The factsheet also compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of Worthing to its European counterparts on variables such as skills, employment and productivity.
Worthing and the cities in its group are small, with relatively large public services sectors and small manufacturing sectors.
Relative to its group, Worthing’s performance is mixed. It performs well on employment and ranks in the middle for GVA per worker and high skills. However, it has the lowest number of patents within the group.