The province of Utrecht has slipped to second place behind the London metropolitan area in the third edition of the European Commission’s regional competitiveness index.

The Dutch province is now on a par with the English counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, north of the London metropolis, according to the new ranking.

Utrecht scores particularly well in terms of its infrastructure and innovation. The Amsterdam region is the next best Dutch performer, coming in 12th out of 263 European regions. Zuid-Holland province, which includes Rotterdam and The Hague, is in 18th place.

Friesland is the worst performer among the Dutch regions, in 83rd place. However, it does not perform any worse than regions the EU considers to be comparable, such as Drenthe in the Netherlands, or Northamptonshire in England.

Groningen by contrast, scores poorly on infrastructure, health and innovation while Zeeland is doing less well than comparative regions in terms of innovation.

The index includes economic measures and social elements and takes into account the level of development of a region by also looking at innovation related factors.