NUTS-3 EL523 · Greece
Population
69,8582025
GDP
€1,163M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
69.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
2,531.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
EL523 · BG324
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Разград (Opportunity 26). Runner-up: Κιλκίς (25). Contrarian pick: Κιλκίς — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 95).
#1Разград
Strengths
Cost advantage (99) · Energy cost (65)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Κιλκίς
Strengths
Demographic outlook (95) · Cost advantage (83)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Разград
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Connectivity (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 0) — Κιλκίς may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Разград 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
24.6
25.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
31.0
33.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
30.4
23.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
24.0
13.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
37.3
22.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
55.0
56.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.0% 5y
4.8% 5y
Population
1.0% 5y
1.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.8% 5y
7.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€16,645
€9,139
Population density
28 /km²
41 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 86 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€1,015M
€793M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€123M
€86M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€268M
€170M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€235M
€131M
GVA — construction (F)
€28M
€31M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€211M
€149M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€12,400
€6,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
18,200 PPS
14,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€14,800
€9,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€5,199M
€1,276M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€548M
€285M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,333M
€3,129M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€105M
€80M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€11M
€2M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€163M
€122M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€221M
€236M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€1,057M
€763M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€42,609
€26,029
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€228M
€212M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
29,680
45,110
Self-employed persons
13,010
15,340
Employment in manufacturing (C)
5,460
8,090
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
70.7%
72.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
23.3%
20.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.6%
4.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
31,100
45,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
4,328
3,987
Enterprise births
269
442
Enterprise deaths
155
565
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.0%
5.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
0.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.7%
2.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.5%
0.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.4%
31.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
44.3%
41.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
5.5%
4.9%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.3%
20.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.9%
4.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
91.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
131,231
49,453
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
474 /1k
492 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,592 kt
2,559 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
—
1
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
24 km/1000km²
0 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
—
1
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
65
102
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
42,629
61,080
Population aged 65+
18,543
25,536
Population aged under 15
8,686
12,843
Median age of population
49.1 yrs
50.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
43.5%
41.8%
Crude rate of total population change
5.5 /1k
-12.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
16.7 /1k
-0.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.9 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude death rate
17.0 /1k
17.9 /1k
Live births
408
642
Deaths
1,182
1,795
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
63.9%
62.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.32
1.48
Population density (persons per km²)
28 /km²
42 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
68,078
57,157
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
33.0%
33.8%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.7 yrs
74.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
24.2%
23.5%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
451 /100k
798 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,185 /100k
2,261 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
244 /100k
223 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.9 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
2.9 /100k
4.0 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
15.8 /100k
10.9 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
111 /100k
122 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
76 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.56
-0.07
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.42
0.25
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.49
-0.10
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.32
-0.14
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.24
0.33
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.143/kWh
€0.135/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.041/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
83 m
300 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
71 days/yr
24 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
61 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
4 days/yr