Indicator: Goods, services and capital Average Distance Index

For most flows, the average distance increases as one moves away from the European core towards the periphery of ESPON space. The longer the average distance for a given flow, the more visible the cen-tre-periphery system becomes for the entire ESPON space. However, for shorter-range flows, there might be a different system than the dominant one.
In the goods/services/capital basket, the abovementioned traditional center-periphery system is main-tained for all flows. However, depending on the flow, the area where shortest flows dominate changes. For example, for goods freight the shortest flows are in Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and also England. There are in turn longer distances for goods trade for companies located in Iceland and Cy-prus. Iceland and Cyprus are characterised by longer flows. The examples of Bulgaria and of Navarre and Zaragoza in Spain are interesting; the length of flows for their goods trade and capital FDI is well above the weighted average for the ESPON space, and for goods freight and services it is well below the average. The relatively long service flows in Ile-de-France (Paris) are also quite surprising. The spa-tial pattern of the index for the average distance of economic flows is naturally concentric. The average distance increases with distance from the EU core. This increase is fastest in the case of FDI flows and noticeably slower in services and freight flows. In addition, in peripheral areas there are disturbances in the concentric pattern, most often around larger metropolises, which concentrate a large share of flows from other regions close by.