NUTS-3 FRJ12 · France
Population
781,4382025
GDP
€23,940M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
72.1%2025
Active firms
192,6492026
Cadastral parcels
1,215,7322026
Area
5,878.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRJ12 · FRL06
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Gard (Opportunity 57). Runner-up: Vaucluse (54). Contrarian pick: Vaucluse — leads the set on Talent & skills (EU pctl 76).
#2Vaucluse
Strengths
Energy cost (88) · Talent & skills (76)
Red flags
Flood: 28% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Gard
Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 15) — Vaucluse may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Gard 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
56.5
54.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
60.8
65.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
44.7
47.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
39.7
22.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
53.3
49.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
67.0
75.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
55.4
43.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.2% 5y
0.7% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.7% 5y
1.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€30,636
€36,866
Population density
133 /km²
161 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
1,556
1,427
Firms per 1k pop
247
279
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€21,367M
€18,989M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€280M
€334M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,931M
€2,158M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,258M
€1,654M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,303M
€1,172M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,613M
€4,410M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€22,300
€25,900
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
28,700 PPS
34,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€31,100
€37,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€22,266M
€49,335M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,184M
€3,075M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€47,206M
€105,791M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€3,988M
€3,451M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€268M
€278M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€7,083M
€5,869M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€6,157M
€5,046M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€21,389M
€18,999M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€86,890
€87,233
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,523M
€4,893M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
280,800
248,500
Self-employed persons
46,100
38,100
Employment in manufacturing (C)
22,000
18,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
72.3%
73.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
25.5%
22.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.9%
7.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
331,700
249,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
64,800
55,395
Enterprise births
8,563
7,070
Enterprise deaths
7,220
5,833
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.9%
6.1%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.3%
2.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.7%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.6%
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.6%
42.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.5%
52.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.5%
13.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.5%
29.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.9%
9.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.0%
94.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
6,008,123
4,807,909
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
—
593 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
4,286
2,943
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
12,677 kt
20,729 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
22 km/1000km²
24 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
549
510
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
50
62
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)
459,009
340,148
Population aged 65+
197,082
143,202
Population aged under 15
125,347
93,598
Median age of population
46.3 yrs
45.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
42.9%
42.1%
Crude rate of total population change
6.6 /1k
4.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.6 /1k
4.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.4 /1k
9.4 /1k
Crude death rate
10.4 /1k
10.0 /1k
Live births
6,546
5,401
Deaths
8,108
5,742
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
70.2%
69.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.64
1.77
Population density (persons per km²)
135 /km²
162 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
731,197
555,633
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
25.3%
20.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.0 yrs
83.8 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
20.5%
16.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
617 /100k
625 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
853 /100k
851 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
227 /100k
202 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
1.2 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
57.7 /100k
61.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
499 /100k
537 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,585 /100k
1,893 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
66 /M
56 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
1.46
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
1.27
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
1.02
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
1.39
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
0.02
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.053/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
72 m
365 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
57 days/yr
47 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
15 days/yr
32 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
11 days/yr
8 days/yr