NUTS-3 IE042 · Ireland
Population
516,9852025
GDP
€30,592M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
14,228.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
IE042 · MT001
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: West (Opportunity 68). Runner-up: Malta (61). Contrarian pick: Malta — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 97).
#2Malta
Strengths
Demographic outlook (97) · Growth momentum (93)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick West
Energy cost (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Energy cost (EU pctl 1) — Malta may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
West 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
67.5
61.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
31.0
53.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
57.8
55.6
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
49.7
36.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
81.5
66.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
86.0
93.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
6.7% 5y
7.3% 5y
Population
1.9% 5y
2.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.8% 5y
8.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€59,174
€41,468
Population density
36 /km²
2,209 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 88 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€29,129M
€20,480M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€380M
€100M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€12,088M
€1,577M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€11,219M
€1,272M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,193M
€722M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€5,822M
€6,352M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,200
€21,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
50,700 PPS
45,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€59,900
€41,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€7,935M
€4,280M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,209M
€228M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€18,607M
€9,681M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,757M
€1,670M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€1,486M
€2,623M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€4,736M
€6,926M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€4,911M
€4,803M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€28,890M
€19,527M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€136,135
€73,251
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,875M
€4,184M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
250,020
308,430
Self-employed persons
43,120
41,350
Employment in manufacturing (C)
38,250
23,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.5%
82.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
13.4%
9.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.7%
3.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
276,300
317,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
35,534
52,349
Enterprise births
3,755
8,968
Enterprise deaths
4,709
3,384
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.8%
6.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.4%
0.5%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.3%
5.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.5%
0.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
53.2%
37.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
61.2%
47.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.0%
19.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.7%
22.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.9%
9.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
92.8%
97.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
5,692,982
10,982,334
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
458 /1k
576 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
11,040 kt
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Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,300
1
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
252
0
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
5 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
29
9
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)
334,052
371,952
Population aged 65+
90,182
96,499
Population aged under 15
92,751
64,546
Median age of population
40.6 yrs
39.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
27.0%
25.9%
Crude rate of total population change
25.6 /1k
19.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
22.7 /1k
19.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.8 /1k
7.7 /1k
Crude death rate
6.9 /1k
7.3 /1k
Live births
4,987
4,055
Deaths
3,498
3,839
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
54.8%
43.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.55
1.01
Population density (persons per km²)
37 /km²
2,154 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
586,284
668,272
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.7%
19.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.2 yrs
83.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
20.9%
16.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
276 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
885 /100k
904 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
239 /100k
193 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.2 /100k
1.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
5.6 /100k
46.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
108 /100k
132 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
634 /100k
785 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
58 /M
21 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.71
0.91
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
0.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.50
0.85
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.65
0.45
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.81
0.93
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.212/kWh
€0.116/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.057/kWh
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Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
62 m
92 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
33 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
16 days/yr
0 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
3 days/yr