NUTS-3 EL532 · Greece
Population
43,8272025
GDP
€590M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
15.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
61.6%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,715.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
EL532 · BG311
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Видин (Opportunity 23). Runner-up: Καστοριά (18).
#1Видин
Strengths
Cost advantage (100) · Growth momentum (75)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Quality of life (EU bottom 15%)
Flood: 34% of population in the 100-year floodplain
#2Καστοριά
Strengths
Cost advantage (81) · Energy cost (58)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Видин
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Connectivity (EU bottom 15%); Industrial base (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%); Quality of life (EU bottom 15%); Flood: 34% of population in the 100-year floodplain. Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 0) — Καστοριά may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Видин · Manufacturing → Видин · Office → Καστοριά · Residential → Видин.
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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
18.2
23.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
32.5
20.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
31.7
10.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
28.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
12.0
13.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
27.8
15.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
37.0
74.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.6% 5y
1.1% 5y
Population
1.4% 5y
1.9% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.6% 5y
10.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€13,455
€8,350
Population density
26 /km²
23 /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)
€515M
€514M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€65M
€60M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€92M
€39M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€69M
€26M
GVA — construction (F)
€13M
€13M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€96M
€99M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€13,200
€6,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
16,200 PPS
13,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€13,100
€8,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€1,167M
€866M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€49M
€154M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€1,399M
€2,572M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€57M
€102M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€4M
€5M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€99M
€122M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€150M
€181M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€504M
€392M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€33,224
€26,734
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€201M
€99M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
18,760
28,410
Self-employed persons
7,260
8,940
Employment in manufacturing (C)
2,620
2,680
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
66.6%
70.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
31.3%
23.1%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
15.4%
7.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
19,500
29,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
3,577
2,663
Enterprise births
249
265
Enterprise deaths
184
380
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.2%
4.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.0%
0.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.7%
1.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
0.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
28.3%
27.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
47.0%
30.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
4.0%
7.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.6%
18.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.9%
5.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
87.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
126,576
75,508
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
429 /1k
472 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
572 kt
1,897 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
—
3
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
23 km/1000km²
1 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
—
4
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
88
85
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
26,598
40,332
Population aged 65+
12,485
22,145
Population aged under 15
4,744
8,065
Median age of population
52.3 yrs
53.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
46.9%
54.9%
Crude rate of total population change
-12.0 /1k
-17.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-4.0 /1k
-0.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.3 /1k
7.1 /1k
Crude death rate
13.3 /1k
24.3 /1k
Live births
232
507
Deaths
586
1,731
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
64.8%
74.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.22
1.91
Population density (persons per km²)
26 /km²
24 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
23,321
29,414
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
29.5%
33.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.3 yrs
73.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
21.7%
25.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
458 /100k
964 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,061 /100k
2,350 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
234 /100k
248 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
2.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
15.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
20.3 /100k
76.6 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
18.0 /100k
387 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
56 /M
148 /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)
793 m
206 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
29 days/yr
38 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
65 days/yr
56 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
7 days/yr
5 days/yr