NUTS-3 FRK12 · France
Population
143,8432025
GDP
€4,215M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
6.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77%2025
Active firms
38,7152026
Cadastral parcels
625,8802026
Area
5,778.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRK12 · ITG2G
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Cantal (Opportunity 34). Runner-up: Oristano (27). Contrarian pick: Oristano — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 67).
#2Oristano
Strengths
Cost advantage (67) · Growth momentum (46)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Cantal
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 14) — Oristano may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Oristano · Manufacturing → Cantal · Office → Cantal · Residential → Cantal.
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
33.6
27.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
63.0
36.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.3
39.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
94.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
39.7
26.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
64.8
19.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
24.0
46.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.1% 5y
3.4% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.9% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.8% 5y
9.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€29,299
€22,150
Population density
25 /km²
49 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
4,351
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
269
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€3,755M
€2,945M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€173M
€298M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€487M
€255M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€359M
€170M
GVA — construction (F)
€294M
€184M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€647M
€549M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€23,400
€18,900
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
27,000 PPS
22,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€29,300
€21,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€10,591M
€10,118M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,415M
€512M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,857M
€16,391M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€670M
€448M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€39M
€20M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€941M
€750M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,215M
€909M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,749M
€3,068M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€73,178
€61,656
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€960M
€806M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
58,700
54,700
Self-employed persons
11,100
15,300
Employment in manufacturing (C)
5,400
2,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.2%
64.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
19.6%
24.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.3%
9.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
63,000
60,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
9,534
9,315
Enterprise births
901
623
Enterprise deaths
868
506
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.1%
4.1%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.0%
0.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.8%
1.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.3%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
40.4%
18.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
46.9%
23.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
15.9%
12.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
26.3%
16.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.9%
4.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.9%
94.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,071,497
1,072,040
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
—
719 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
933
663
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,411 kt
3,557 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
649
448
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
19 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
90
93
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
80,749
90,054
Population aged 65+
44,339
44,610
Population aged under 15
18,755
13,341
Median age of population
52.2 yrs
53.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
54.9%
49.5%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.0 /1k
-7.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.9 /1k
2.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.5 /1k
4.4 /1k
Crude death rate
14.3 /1k
13.7 /1k
Live births
929
659
Deaths
2,056
2,042
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
78.1%
64.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.50
0.93
Population density (persons per km²)
25 /km²
—
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
117,374
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
22.4%
29.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.7 yrs
83.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
17.7%
26.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
660 /100k
293 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
871 /100k
857 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
230 /100k
224 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
1.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
15.3 /100k
2.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
227 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
699 /100k
269 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
64 /M
72 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
1,044 m
53 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
2 days/yr
70 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
72 days/yr
1 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
20 days/yr
8 days/yr