NUTS-3 EE008 · Estonia
Population
321,6902025
GDP
€7,360M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7.5%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81.7%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
17,224.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
EE008 · PL411
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Lõuna-Eesti (Opportunity 42). Runner-up: Pilski (37). Contrarian pick: Pilski — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 85).
Strengths
Cost advantage (75) · Energy cost (73)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
#2Pilski
Strengths
Cost advantage (85) · Industrial base (85)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Lõuna-Eesti
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 6) — Pilski may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Pilski · Manufacturing → Pilski · Office → Lõuna-Eesti · Residential → Pilski.
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
42.2
36.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
48.0
37.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
51.8
42.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
47.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
37.0
23.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
69.8
35.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
63.0
48.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.6% 5y
2.8% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
1.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.6% 5y
2.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€22,878
€14,947
Population density
19 /km²
59 /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)
€6,448M
€5,137M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€294M
€517M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,202M
€1,625M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,076M
€1,465M
GVA — construction (F)
€480M
€331M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,210M
€1,052M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€15,400
€11,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
24,800 PPS
21,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€22,800
€14,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€9,522M
€12,125M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€822M
€2,853M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€20,179M
€27,656M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€786M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€324M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,450M
€703M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,811M
€908M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,377M
€4,906M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€49,822
€44,850
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,862M
€1,095M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
155,070
156,300
Self-employed persons
20,240
36,100
Employment in manufacturing (C)
26,490
40,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
81.7%
76.0%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
20.7%
8.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
7.4%
2.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
174,900
187,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
30,498
23,782
Enterprise births
3,989
2,287
Enterprise deaths
8,167
3,041
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.0%
5.1%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.0%
1.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
7.3%
2.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
0.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.1%
34.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
44.3%
42.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
23.8%
6.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.5%
22.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.2%
7.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.4%
97.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,017,177
259,154
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
635 /1k
667 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
7,023
54
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
6,142 kt
16,837 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
5 km/1000km²
7 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
2,183
14
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
152
78
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
201,581
245,933
Population aged 65+
68,572
77,172
Population aged under 15
51,537
57,205
Median age of population
42.9 yrs
43.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.0%
31.4%
Crude rate of total population change
-4.9 /1k
-5.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.2 /1k
-1.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.6 /1k
6.7 /1k
Crude death rate
12.7 /1k
10.9 /1k
Live births
2,454
2,569
Deaths
4,080
4,157
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.6%
54.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.29
1.18
Population density (persons per km²)
21 /km²
60 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
214,008
270,668
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
21.8%
17.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
79.4 yrs
78.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
19.5%
15.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
446 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,322 /100k
1,508 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
238 /100k
284 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.2 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
6.8 /100k
8.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
143 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
806 /100k
115 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
62 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.36
0.52
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.54
0.69
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.52
0.35
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.60
0.67
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.87
0.54
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.119/kWh
€0.113/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.064/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
46 m
103 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
1 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
121 days/yr
79 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr