NUTS-3 SK022 · Slovakia
Population
565,5722025
GDP
€11,063M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.5%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
4,500.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
SK022 · PT112
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Cávado (Opportunity 51). Runner-up: Trenčiansky kraj (50). Contrarian pick: Trenčiansky kraj — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 85).
#1Cávado
Strengths
Energy cost (90) · Cost advantage (80)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (85) · Industrial base (73)
Red flags
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Cávado
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Air quality (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Freight intensity (EU pctl 2) — Trenčiansky kraj may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Cávado 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
49.8
50.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
30.3
65.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
29.6
40.6
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
25.0
7.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
24.0
48.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
26.3
63.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
62.6
76.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.8% 5y
3.5% 5y
Population
0.7% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.3% 5y
1.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€19,562
€22,945
Population density
126 /km²
347 /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)
€10,010M
€8,640M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€184M
€126M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,783M
€1,957M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,340M
€1,753M
GVA — construction (F)
€755M
€808M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,676M
€1,800M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€11,900
€13,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
24,200 PPS
28,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€19,400
€23,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,200M
€16,004M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,104M
€3,831M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€15,474M
€39,066M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€139M
€856M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€312M
€262M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,073M
€1,780M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,540M
€1,588M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€8,705M
€8,446M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€44,323
€48,222
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,362M
€2,126M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
262,510
212,550
Self-employed persons
36,470
31,700
Employment in manufacturing (C)
84,690
50,910
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.7%
77.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
13.0%
18.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.3%
6.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
286,100
232,600
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
60,931
55,334
Enterprise births
6,833
8,352
Enterprise deaths
7,994
5,761
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.7%
5.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.9%
2.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.8%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.6%
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
25.0%
29.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
35.3%
41.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.2%
15.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
16.8%
23.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.7%
10.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
91.1%
88.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,236,637
1,314,621
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
528 /1k
—
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
23
1,890
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
12,906 kt
2,191 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
4
437
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
18 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
88
43
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)
367,478
285,820
Population aged 65+
118,790
92,452
Population aged under 15
79,304
54,767
Median age of population
45.3 yrs
46.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.3%
32.3%
Crude rate of total population change
-4.5 /1k
15.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-0.2 /1k
15.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
7.4 /1k
Crude death rate
10.8 /1k
8.0 /1k
Live births
3,727
3,306
Deaths
6,122
3,538
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.9%
51.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.15
1.27
Population density (persons per km²)
126 /km²
350 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
343,725
263,837
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.0%
18.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
78.4 yrs
83.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
9.0%
15.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
468 /100k
327 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,707 /100k
914 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
271 /100k
207 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.5 /100k
0.2 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
3.5 /100k
35.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
54.4 /100k
114 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
83.8 /100k
527 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
66 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.80
1.02
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.73
0.81
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.59
1.13
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.38
0.79
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.53
0.89
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.160/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.063/kWh
€0.045/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
440 m
215 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
22 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
98 days/yr
7 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
29 days/yr