NUTS-3 ES423 · Spain
Population
199,8592025
GDP
€5,860M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
12.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
17,156.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES423 · ES241
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Huesca (Opportunity 52). Runner-up: Cuenca (43). Contrarian pick: Cuenca — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 74).
#2Cuenca
Strengths
Freight intensity (98) · Energy cost (95)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Huesca
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 17) — Cuenca may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Huesca 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
43.1
51.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
47.8
57.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
39.0
58.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
16.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
19.3
22.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
45.3
61.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
68.4
68.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.2% 5y
3.1% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.3% 5y
5.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€29,320
€35,498
Population density
12 /km²
15 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 87 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€5,347M
€7,453M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€704M
€1,238M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,226M
€1,590M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€541M
€1,145M
GVA — construction (F)
€322M
€497M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,257M
€1,449M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€15,800
€19,900
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
33,100 PPS
40,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€29,500
€35,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€9,963M
€9,383M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,892M
€1,967M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,774M
€22,292M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€818M
€1,233M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,020M
€1,446M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,219M
€7,364M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€74,451
€79,922
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,260M
€1,858M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
85,000
108,900
Self-employed persons
17,500
20,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
10,200
14,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.4%
76.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
27.6%
24.1%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
12.7%
8.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
97,500
113,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
13,584
16,148
Enterprise births
955
1,067
Enterprise deaths
909
1,062
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.4%
3.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.6%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.7%
3.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
1.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
33.3%
41.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
47.4%
49.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
14.0%
15.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.8%
22.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.6%
7.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.3%
97.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
964,798
3,836,157
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
599 /1k
499 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
16,629 kt
20,390 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
59
63
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
23 km/1000km²
18 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
30
27
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
136
99
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)
129,115
147,400
Population aged 65+
47,166
53,494
Population aged under 15
23,578
29,193
Median age of population
47.9 yrs
47.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
36.5%
36.3%
Crude rate of total population change
4.2 /1k
6.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
9.3 /1k
11.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
6.6 /1k
Crude death rate
11.7 /1k
10.7 /1k
Live births
1,322
1,504
Deaths
2,335
2,464
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
54.8%
56.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.22
1.25
Population density (persons per km²)
12 /km²
15 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
112,700
166,110
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
34.0%
19.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.9 yrs
84.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
25.9%
13.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
236 /100k
352 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
837 /100k
812 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
206 /100k
226 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.5 /100k
0.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
30.6 /100k
56.0 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
337 /100k
302 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
152 /100k
237 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
53 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
1.14
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
0.84
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
0.96
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.78
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.16
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.106/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
1,045 m
626 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
53 days/yr
52 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
54 days/yr
41 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
9 days/yr