NUTS-3 FRC12 · France
Population
200,1882025
GDP
€5,913M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75.5%2025
Active firms
43,2632026
Cadastral parcels
682,7312026
Area
6,885.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRC12 · FI1C7
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Nièvre (Opportunity 36). Runner-up: Kymenlaakso (31). Contrarian pick: Kymenlaakso — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 99).
Why you might not pick Nièvre
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 5) — Kymenlaakso may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Nièvre 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
36.0
31.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
54.5
53.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
46.9
58.9
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
96.0
97.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
31.3
49.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
53.0
64.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
30.2
5.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.1% 5y
—
Population
0.2% 5y
0.9% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.7% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€29,537
€43,580
Population density
29 /km²
32 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
3,410
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
216
FR-only
All indicators · 90 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€5,270M
€6,001M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€320M
€167M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€647M
€1,178M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€554M
€904M
GVA — construction (F)
€262M
€319M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€867M
€1,408M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€23,100
€23,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
27,300 PPS
36,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€29,600
€43,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€12,851M
€8,779M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,525M
€1,548M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€28,666M
€22,877M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,098M
€929M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€30M
€390M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,483M
€1,419M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,692M
€1,510M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,258M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€81,326
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,331M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
74,100
69,440
Self-employed persons
9,900
6,150
Employment in manufacturing (C)
7,800
8,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.3%
79.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
19.2%
20.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.9%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
82,600
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
11,495
9,772
Enterprise births
1,486
733
Enterprise deaths
1,086
820
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.9%
5.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.8%
1.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.7%
4.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.7%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.1%
39.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
43.8%
34.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
12.3%
26.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.3%
26.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.7%
9.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
92.3%
96.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
752,412
307,558
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
—
710 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,869 kt
7,826 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
980
2,153
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
490
1,368
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
22 km/1000km²
11 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
151
68
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)
110,204
90,512
Population aged 65+
62,783
48,123
Population aged under 15
27,201
18,807
Median age of population
52.0 yrs
51.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
57.0%
53.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.1 /1k
-7.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.5 /1k
1.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.7 /1k
4.9 /1k
Crude death rate
15.3 /1k
14.3 /1k
Live births
1,339
770
Deaths
3,069
2,262
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
81.7%
73.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.53
1.06
Population density (persons per km²)
29 /km²
40 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
141,689
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.4%
17.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
81.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.1%
12.7%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
632 /100k
256 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
864 /100k
944 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
227 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.0 /100k
1.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
25.4 /100k
30.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
585 /100k
136 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,354 /100k
2,525 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
62 /M
38 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
—
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.067/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.065/kWh
Housing market
Dwelling price per m² — old housing-company dwellings (Statistics Finland)
—
€1,127/m²
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
271 m
61 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
14 days/yr
1 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
36 days/yr
150 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
1 days/yr