Figure 1
The chart has years on the horizontal axis, from 2009 to 2017, with yearly increments. The vertical axis shows the percentage contribution, ranging from 1.1 to 2.3 in increments of 0.2 percent. Each year has four colored bars, each representing a different group of countries: Blue Bar: European Union: 27 countries (from 2020). Orange Bar: European Union: 28 countries (2013 to 2020). Gray Bar: European Union: 15 countries (1995 to 2004). Yellow Bar: Euro area: 19 countries (from 2015). The gray and yellow bars are consistently the tallest, indicating that the European Union-15 and Euro area-19 had a higher percentage contribution of the Blue Economy to their G D P s compared to the other groups. The orange bar, representing the European Union-28, is consistently the shortest, showing the lowest contribution. The blue bar, representing the European-27, is in the middle of the other bars, showing a contribution that is higher than the European-28 but lower than the European-15 and Euro area-19. All country groups show minor fluctuations in their contribution over the years. Note: All numerical values are approximated.Evolution of the percentage contribution of the Blue Economy to the GDP of the EU member countries (2009–2017. Source: Authors’ own elaboration; data from EU Blue Indicators (Blue Indicators, 2020) and Eurostat (Eurostat, 2020)