The Sicily regional administration has set the Messina Bridge at the top of priority requests to the central government to be inserted in the list of investments which the EU Recovery Fund money is supposed to be used for, and has calculated that the bridge, by allowing Sicilian infrastructure to be upgraded to the level of Southern Italy in general, would produce a 7.4% increase in Sicily GDP. Sicily has a population of 5 million, the same as Slovakia, with an average per-capita income of EU17,700, below the average Mezzogiorno income and the double the average joblessness as the national average.