NUTS-3 FR104 · France
Population
1,356,1142025
GDP
€63,199M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
76.5%2025
Active firms
255,8092026
Cadastral parcels
582,6842026
Area
1,815.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FR104 · DK042
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Essonne (Opportunity 72). Runner-up: Østjylland (61). Contrarian pick: Østjylland — leads the set on Governance (EU pctl 99).
#1Essonne
Strengths
Talent & skills (95) · Demographic outlook (91)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Essonne
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%); Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 14) — Østjylland may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Østjylland · Manufacturing → Østjylland · Office → Essonne · Residential → Essonne.
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
72.3
60.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
67.0
76.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
62.5
63.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
43.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
77.0
54.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
94.5
84.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
35.6
43.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.8% 5y
1.4% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
1.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.4% 5y
3.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€46,603
€54,853
Population density
747 /km²
159 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
430
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
189
FR-only
All indicators · 90 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€56,510M
€45,938M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€52M
€468M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€5,431M
€6,674M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€4,473M
€5,618M
GVA — construction (F)
€3,629M
€2,703M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€13,531M
€11,810M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€29,600
€27,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
43,600 PPS
42,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€47,300
€55,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€192,308M
€17,735M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€9,999M
€3,003M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€456,581M
€42,693M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€9,004M
€5,316M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€2,027M
€2,496M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€21,899M
€12,698M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€11,968M
€11,586M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€58,225M
€47,322M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€117,986
€108,780
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€14,268M
€12,228M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
545,900
492,610
Self-employed persons
42,800
25,840
Employment in manufacturing (C)
36,400
46,460
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.6%
81.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
21.2%
14.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.8%
6.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
666,600
532,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
85,522
59,668
Enterprise births
14,081
4,069
Enterprise deaths
10,884
5,745
3-year enterprise survival rate
7.1%
3.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.9%
2.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
9.1%
4.2%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
3.0%
1.9%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
58.6%
44.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
72.7%
49.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.0%
29.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
40.1%
28.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
14.1%
10.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.2%
97.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,781,352
3,576,924
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
433 /1k
500 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
22,790 kt
28,018 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
5,783
5,495
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
52 km/1000km²
26 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
426
582
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
23
52
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
871,832
611,520
Population aged 65+
219,965
180,957
Population aged under 15
264,317
152,546
Median age of population
38.2 yrs
39.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
25.2%
29.6%
Crude rate of total population change
6.4 /1k
9.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.3 /1k
7.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
12.6 /1k
10.6 /1k
Crude death rate
6.6 /1k
8.5 /1k
Live births
17,072
9,953
Deaths
8,880
7,959
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.5%
54.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.91
1.52
Population density (persons per km²)
747 /km²
163 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
1,499,497
1,155,758
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.9%
19.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.6 yrs
82.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.9%
12.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
473 /100k
169 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
761 /100k
961 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
192 /100k
260 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.4 /100k
1.1 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
94.2 /100k
23.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
387 /100k
707 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,952 /100k
2,467 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
21 /M
30 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
2.10
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
2.02
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
2.00
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
2.30
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
0.84
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.122/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.043/kWh
Housing market
Average sold price, one-family houses (DKK thousands, Statistics Denmark)
—
3,139 kDKK
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
119 m
86 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
11 days/yr
0 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
32 days/yr
60 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr