NUTS-3 PL517 · Poland
Population
570,9962025
GDP
€8,440M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80.2%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
4,172.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
PL517 · ITF65
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Wałbrzyski (Opportunity 45). Runner-up: Reggio Calabria (38). Contrarian pick: Reggio Calabria — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 67).
Strengths
Cost advantage (86) · Freight intensity (85)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (72) · Demographic outlook (67)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Wałbrzyski
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Economic base (EU pctl 10) — Reggio Calabria may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Wałbrzyski 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
45.3
38.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
20.0
27.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
40.1
27.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
26.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
33.3
25.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
80.3
13.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
52.0
45.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.2% 5y
2.8% 5y
Population
2.2% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.7% 5y
7.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€14,780
€22,185
Population density
137 /km²
162 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€7,626M
€10,223M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€157M
€640M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,648M
€589M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,141M
€421M
GVA — construction (F)
€502M
€568M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,535M
€3,163M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€11,700
€16,400
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
21,000 PPS
22,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€14,200
€22,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€10,003M
€8,676M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,337M
€460M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€25,600M
€14,341M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€1,319M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€79M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,229M
€2,265M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,554M
€2,996M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€7,259M
€10,324M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€47,516
€67,706
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,590M
€2,567M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
218,400
173,200
Self-employed persons
39,000
48,900
Employment in manufacturing (C)
55,800
8,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.1%
51.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
18.0%
28.1%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.4%
9.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
279,300
173,700
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
35,320
30,301
Enterprise births
3,643
2,771
Enterprise deaths
4,777
1,785
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.3%
4.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
0.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.8%
1.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
0.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
44.2%
18.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
50.5%
25.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
11.7%
9.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
32.4%
16.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.9%
4.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.2%
88.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,861,208
726,315
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
640 /1k
750 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
27,774 kt
3,316 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
130
1,291
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
12 km/1000km²
19 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
23
252
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
61
78
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)
357,072
322,860
Population aged 65+
144,860
123,346
Population aged under 15
69,064
66,750
Median age of population
47.1 yrs
47.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
40.6%
38.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-10.5 /1k
-4.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-1.1 /1k
-0.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.1 /1k
7.5 /1k
Crude death rate
14.5 /1k
11.3 /1k
Live births
2,937
3,850
Deaths
8,322
5,825
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.9%
58.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
0.98
1.34
Population density (persons per km²)
138 /km²
160 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
337,151
403,382
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
10.5%
45.3%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
78.1 yrs
82.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
8.8%
32.8%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
729 /100k
256 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,486 /100k
968 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
280 /100k
204 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.2 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
13.5 /100k
14.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
181 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
258 /100k
679 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
52 /M
52 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.52
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.69
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.35
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.67
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.54
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.113/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.064/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
371 m
559 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
16 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
93 days/yr
3 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
12 days/yr