NUTS-3 ES511 · Spain
Population
5,959,9412025
GDP
€209,564M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
76.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
7,723.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES511 · DE300
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Barcelona (Opportunity 72). Runner-up: Berlin (66). Contrarian pick: Berlin — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 87).
#2Berlin
Strengths
Demographic outlook (89) · Economic base (87)
Red flags
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Barcelona
Its weakest dimension is Air quality (EU pctl 18) — Berlin may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Barcelona · Manufacturing → Barcelona · Office → Barcelona · Residential → Berlin.
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
71.9
66.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
42.5
45.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
54.1
49.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
18.3
25.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
49.0
68.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
76.8
86.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
68.4
45.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.2% 5y
2.5% 5y
Population
0.9% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
7.6% 5y
2.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€35,162
€54,152
Population density
772 /km²
4,117 /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)
€190,895M
€182,283M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€880M
€5M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€35,438M
€16,437M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€29,449M
€11,664M
GVA — construction (F)
€9,083M
€6,790M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€55,126M
€45,610M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€19,900
€26,400
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
40,300 PPS
48,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€35,900
€54,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€57,689M
€39,950M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€9,484M
€2,462M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€147,909M
€112,242M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€16,453M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€11,914M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€55,293M
€57,889M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€35,076M
€55,553M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€198,856M
€180,082M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€78,611
€97,679
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€48,409M
€40,567M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
2,865,100
2,197,430
Self-employed persons
368,800
214,050
Employment in manufacturing (C)
341,000
112,010
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.4%
77.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
19.1%
9.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.4%
6.5%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
3,145,800
1,996,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
489,832
170,919
Enterprise births
46,485
19,740
Enterprise deaths
39,035
20,090
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.2%
4.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.9%
3.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.6%
10.0%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.5%
2.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
46.9%
48.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
57.5%
55.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
16.2%
11.9%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.1%
36.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.8%
14.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.5%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
41,221,572
30,394,844
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
450 /1k
334 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
141,294 kt
27,572 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
10,112
13,046
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
46 km/1000km²
86 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
170
354
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
52
18
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
4,007,868
2,466,429
Population aged 65+
1,174,289
707,418
Population aged under 15
777,784
511,418
Median age of population
44.4 yrs
41.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
29.3%
28.7%
Crude rate of total population change
13.9 /1k
6.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
15.6 /1k
7.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
9.2 /1k
Crude death rate
8.2 /1k
10.3 /1k
Live births
39,034
33,749
Deaths
48,823
37,686
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
48.7%
49.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.04
1.22
Population density (persons per km²)
767 /km²
4,343 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
7,319,537
4,335,249
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
21.3%
24.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.3 yrs
81.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.3%
18.7%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
360 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
806 /100k
1,007 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
208 /100k
245 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
1.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
371 /100k
140 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
342 /100k
1,098 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,112 /100k
3,228 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
32 /M
15 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
368 m
41 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
45 days/yr
12 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
21 days/yr
61 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
2 days/yr