NUTS-3 CH023 · Switzerland
Population
289,7922025
GDP
€21,622M2022
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
83.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
793 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
CH023 · BE254
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Solothurn (Opportunity 73). Runner-up: Arr. Kortrijk (70). Contrarian pick: Arr. Kortrijk — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 89).
Strengths
Economic base (89) · Talent & skills (82)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Solothurn
Its weakest dimension is Growth momentum (EU pctl 50) — Arr. Kortrijk may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Solothurn leads under all four archetype mandates — the recommendation is weight-stable.
Phase-2 diligence checklist
- Site-level grid connection capacity and power pricing (beyond country-grain energy data)
- Local incentives, tax regimes and permitting timelines
- Workforce depth for your specific roles (the talent pillar is a proxy)
- Real-estate availability, rents and land — public pan-EU data stops at the Nordics
This is a mandate-neutral read. To weight the pillars to your thesis, run these regions through the Site Screener — it ranks all 1,211 regions under your weights and exports the full PDF. First-pass macro screening, not investment advice.
Composite intelligence · 0–100 EU-percentile scores
Opportunity Indexscale + growth + access + structure
72.6
70.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
80.5
77.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
73.5
60.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
40.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
67.7
65.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
77.5
82.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
50.0
61.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.9% 5y
2.3% 5y
Population
1.0% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.4% 5y
1.9% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€74,612
€55,848
Population density
365 /km²
744 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 84 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€20,310M
€15,412M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€86M
€110M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€4,881M
€3,209M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
—
€2,706M
GVA — construction (F)
—
€1,286M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
—
€3,268M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
—
€31,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
—
49,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
—
€56,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
—
€16,710M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
—
€2,304M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
—
€29,133M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€1,338M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€4,913M
€395M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
—
€4,552M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,331M
€2,987M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€20,006M
€14,448M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€158,470
€116,954
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€6,379M
€4,644M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
—
150,200
Self-employed persons
—
26,300
Employment in manufacturing (C)
—
26,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
85.6%
76.2%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
8.5%
11.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.5%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
163,900
146,200
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
1.7%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
7.1%
3.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
1.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.3%
42.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
45.4%
51.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
26.3%
18.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.2%
30.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.8%
10.4%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.0%
93.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
546,585
397,161
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
556 /1k
512 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,615 kt
6,592 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,242
957
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
40 km/1000km²
59 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
429
314
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
40
31
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
185,842
188,712
Population aged 65+
61,566
67,017
Population aged under 15
42,384
49,154
Median age of population
44.4 yrs
43.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.1%
35.5%
Crude rate of total population change
10.2 /1k
7.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
11.0 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.3 /1k
9.4 /1k
Crude death rate
9.1 /1k
10.1 /1k
Live births
2,406
2,857
Deaths
2,629
3,081
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.9%
61.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.34
1.53
Population density (persons per km²)
367 /km²
748 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
321,845
295,558
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
19.1%
9.8%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.8 yrs
83.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.1%
5.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
378 /100k
634 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
825 /100k
849 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
193 /100k
205 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
1.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
16.7 /100k
83.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
849 /100k
326 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,596 /100k
1,341 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
30 /M
43 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
2.03
1.31
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.76
1.41
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
1.34
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
2.09
1.58
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
1.03
0.25
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
—
€0.130/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
—
€0.046/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
487 m
23 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
84 days/yr
29 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
9 days/yr
2 days/yr