NUTS-3 EL431 · Greece
Population
301,5982025
GDP
€5,458M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
2,649.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
EL431 · CZ041
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Karlovarský kraj (Opportunity 43). Runner-up: Ηράκλειο (32). Contrarian pick: Ηράκλειο — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 90).
Strengths
Cost advantage (80) · Air quality (72)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
#2Ηράκλειο
Strengths
Demographic outlook (90) · Cost advantage (81)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Karlovarský kraj
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Talent & skills (EU pctl 11) — Ηράκλειο may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Karlovarský kraj · Manufacturing → Karlovarský kraj · Office → Ηράκλειο · Residential → Ηράκλειο.
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
32.0
43.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
15.5
37.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
31.9
38.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
22.0
72.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
29.7
65.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
17.8
10.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
60.2
52.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
5.3% 5y
1.3% 5y
Population
0.4% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
21.7% 5y
0.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€18,096
€18,355
Population density
114 /km²
89 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€4,762M
€4,912M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€298M
€154M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€495M
€1,089M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€360M
€859M
GVA — construction (F)
€136M
€251M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,709M
€1,215M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€12,800
€13,900
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
21,600 PPS
22,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€17,500
€18,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€2,427M
€6,471M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€104M
€1,776M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€4,111M
€10,301M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€533M
€601M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€96M
€139M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,132M
€925M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€993M
€1,279M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€4,872M
€3,894M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€36,801
€43,766
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,349M
€1,711M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
162,650
131,450
Self-employed persons
50,970
12,820
Employment in manufacturing (C)
9,820
28,450
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
72.0%
76.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
12.9%
15.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.1%
4.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
139,100
143,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
28,597
26,733
Enterprise births
2,429
2,552
Enterprise deaths
820
2,201
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.0%
4.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
0.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.8%
1.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.7%
0.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
28.5%
16.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
36.5%
19.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
3.1%
9.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
17.7%
10.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.4%
4.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
95.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
14,052,273
5,435,214
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
500 /1k
593 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
7,939 kt
9,814 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1
1,184
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
1 km/1000km²
18 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
0
404
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
21
9
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
192,761
188,324
Population aged 65+
62,763
63,248
Population aged under 15
46,074
41,623
Median age of population
44.7 yrs
45.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.6%
33.6%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.0 /1k
-6.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-0.9 /1k
-1.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.4 /1k
6.2 /1k
Crude death rate
10.5 /1k
11.6 /1k
Live births
2,544
1,814
Deaths
3,180
3,401
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.5%
55.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.50
1.14
Population density (persons per km²)
115 /km²
91 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
299,129
198,432
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
18.2%
13.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
78.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.7%
11.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
410 /100k
622 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
966 /100k
1,692 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
213 /100k
286 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
3.0 /100k
18.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
39.3 /100k
337 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
222 /100k
292 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
71 /M
47 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.56
1.20
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.42
1.33
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.49
1.14
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.32
0.80
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.24
1.00
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.143/kWh
€0.146/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
476 m
674 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
47 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
114 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
2 days/yr