NUTS-3 ES421 · Spain
Population
390,7512025
GDP
€10,285M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
12.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
14,926.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES421 · HU211
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Albacete (Opportunity 50). Runner-up: Fejér (46). Contrarian pick: Fejér — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 93).
#1Albacete
Strengths
Energy cost (95) · Freight intensity (75)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
#2Fejér
Strengths
Industrial base (93) · Cost advantage (90)
Red flags
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Energy cost (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Albacete
Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Connectivity (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 13) — Fejér may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Fejér · Manufacturing → Fejér · Office → Albacete · Residential → Fejér.
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
49.6
45.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
49.5
31.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
45.2
41.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
48.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
13.7
44.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
45.3
15.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
66.0
57.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.7% 5y
0.8% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.8% 5y
2.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€26,322
€18,921
Population density
26 /km²
96 /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)
€9,386M
€6,805M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€813M
€263M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,882M
€2,420M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,178M
€2,301M
GVA — construction (F)
€537M
€573M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,175M
€1,049M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€15,800
€11,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
29,700 PPS
26,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€26,500
€18,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€9,963M
€5,688M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,892M
€2,817M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,774M
€7,959M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€808M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€172M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,731M
€1,385M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,247M
€1,116M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€9,161M
€6,092M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€68,142
€44,844
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,212M
€2,209M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
163,000
186,660
Self-employed persons
31,100
16,440
Employment in manufacturing (C)
19,700
55,860
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.4%
79.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
27.6%
13.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
12.8%
3.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
195,600
214,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
26,533
35,397
Enterprise births
2,043
3,512
Enterprise deaths
1,938
897
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.7%
5.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.6%
1.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.7%
5.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
33.3%
23.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
47.4%
23.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
14.0%
9.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.8%
17.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.6%
5.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.3%
95.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,315,813
632,798
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
599 /1k
473 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
16,102 kt
8,681 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
10
2,039
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
23 km/1000km²
25 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
3
487
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
125
64
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
258,963
271,096
Population aged 65+
81,452
86,082
Population aged under 15
50,336
61,384
Median age of population
46.3 yrs
45.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.5%
31.8%
Crude rate of total population change
4.3 /1k
-2.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
7.6 /1k
2.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.5 /1k
8.4 /1k
Crude death rate
9.8 /1k
12.6 /1k
Live births
2,545
3,516
Deaths
3,826
5,295
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
50.9%
54.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.17
1.49
Population density (persons per km²)
26 /km²
98 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
258,619
362,363
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
34.0%
10.8%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.9 yrs
77.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
25.9%
7.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
236 /100k
617 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
837 /100k
1,712 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
206 /100k
323 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
53.2 /100k
3.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
319 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
230 /100k
387 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
62 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
0.66
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
0.29
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
0.24
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.04
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.67
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.171/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
920 m
105 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
52 days/yr
24 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
16 days/yr
64 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr