NUTS-3 ES521 · Spain
Population
2,033,5662025
GDP
€46,473M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
5,842.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES521 · PT11A
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Alicante/Alacant (Opportunity 65). Runner-up: Área Metropolitana do Porto (61). Contrarian pick: Área Metropolitana do Porto — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 80).
Strengths
Energy cost (95) · Digital readiness (88)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Energy cost (90) · Cost advantage (80)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Alicante/Alacant
Labour market (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 14) — Área Metropolitana do Porto may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Alicante/Alacant · Manufacturing → Área Metropolitana do Porto · Office → Alicante/Alacant · Residential → Alicante/Alacant.
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
64.9
60.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
45.8
56.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
53.3
40.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
87.0
27.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
49.3
43.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
60.3
63.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
78.2
75.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.8% 5y
4.1% 5y
Population
1.6% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.5% 5y
1.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€22,853
€25,831
Population density
348 /km²
893 /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)
€42,408M
€40,843M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€562M
€294M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€5,117M
€7,623M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€4,404M
€7,033M
GVA — construction (F)
€3,421M
€1,593M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€12,231M
€10,793M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€16,000
€13,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
26,400 PPS
31,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€23,500
€25,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€25,331M
€16,004M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,983M
€3,831M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€70,224M
€39,066M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€3,762M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€2,184M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€11,312M
€10,716M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€9,766M
€7,273M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€43,576M
€39,924M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€65,043
€54,646
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€9,561M
€10,048M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
768,100
886,580
Self-employed persons
130,800
117,820
Employment in manufacturing (C)
81,200
166,050
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.1%
77.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
30.5%
18.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.6%
6.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
1,016,200
951,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
153,279
247,900
Enterprise births
16,355
44,100
Enterprise deaths
12,875
28,477
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.9%
5.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.2%
2.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.3%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.0%
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
38.1%
29.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
53.1%
41.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.3%
15.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.2%
23.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.0%
10.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.0%
88.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
32,579,948
10,465,340
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
510 /1k
—
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,869
82
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
48,365 kt
14,639 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
92
5
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
50 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
19
19
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
1,337,664
1,169,572
Population aged 65+
426,265
426,591
Population aged under 15
269,637
222,054
Median age of population
45.9 yrs
47.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.9%
36.5%
Crude rate of total population change
20.0 /1k
11.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
21.9 /1k
13.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
6.9 /1k
Crude death rate
8.4 /1k
9.4 /1k
Live births
13,207
12,674
Deaths
16,946
17,395
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
52.0%
55.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.15
1.19
Population density (persons per km²)
349 /km²
893 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
1,911,954
1,103,722
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
30.7%
18.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.5 yrs
83.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
26.0%
15.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
219 /100k
327 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
900 /100k
914 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
213 /100k
207 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.1 /100k
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
110 /100k
97.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
388 /100k
162 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
450 /100k
907 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
30 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
1.02
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
0.81
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
1.13
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.79
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.89
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.045/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
216 m
116 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
68 days/yr
21 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
1 days/yr
2 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
25 days/yr