NUTS-3 FRE11 · France
Population
2,613,7812025
GDP
€93,776M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
71.8%2025
Active firms
472,7602026
Cadastral parcels
1,884,9992026
Area
5,727.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRE11 · NL350
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Utrecht (Opportunity 83). Runner-up: Nord (65). Contrarian pick: Nord — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 88).
Why you might not pick Utrecht
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 9) — Nord may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Utrecht 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
64.7
83.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
53.8
81.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
39.0
73.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
43.3
42.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
76.7
68.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
73.3
98.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
41.6
62.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.8% 5y
—
Population
0.0% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.2% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€35,877
€75,408
Population density
456 /km²
902 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
721
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
181
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€83,691M
€95,362M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€755M
€481M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€13,052M
€6,486M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€9,798M
€5,601M
GVA — construction (F)
€4,767M
€4,443M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€17,635M
€23,401M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€21,200
€28,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
32,900 PPS
64,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€35,800
€75,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€28,402M
€18,985M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,256M
€1,324M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€76,179M
€47,561M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€8,670M
€6,857M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€3,610M
€8,198M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€22,474M
€30,622M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€25,009M
€23,003M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€83,973M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€84,427
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€19,827M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
1,132,000
903,100
Self-employed persons
95,800
135,600
Employment in manufacturing (C)
107,000
40,000
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
73.2%
87.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
21.4%
9.5%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
9.0%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
1,209,300
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
150,692
200,842
Enterprise births
22,431
18,550
Enterprise deaths
17,038
9,529
3-year enterprise survival rate
7.0%
6.7%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.9%
—
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.9%
8.1%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.7%
—
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.0%
58.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
53.6%
66.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
14.9%
28.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.2%
40.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.6%
16.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
92.8%
99.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
5,158,184
4,626,106
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
—
560 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
10,672
3,535
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
65,213 kt
29,282 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
408
251
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
50 km/1000km²
124 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
4
37
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
1,654,671
920,570
Population aged 65+
499,153
259,611
Population aged under 15
459,957
228,963
Median age of population
39.9 yrs
40.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
30.2%
28.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.5 /1k
6.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-1.8 /1k
4.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.2 /1k
10.4 /1k
Crude death rate
8.8 /1k
8.2 /1k
Live births
26,558
14,601
Deaths
23,129
11,551
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
58.0%
53.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.59
1.47
Population density (persons per km²)
456 /km²
938 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
2,628,268
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
26.9%
15.8%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.3 yrs
82.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
21.9%
12.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
558 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,007 /100k
—
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
260 /100k
237 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.9 /100k
—
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
90.8 /100k
—
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
462 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,083 /100k
—
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
29 /M
35 /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
€0.142/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
47 m
4 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
4 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
31 days/yr
31 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr