NUTS-3 EL522 · Greece
Population
1,081,8432025
GDP
€19,661M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
69.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
3,688.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
EL522 · ITG12
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Palermo (Opportunity 47). Runner-up: Θεσσαλονίκη (43). Contrarian pick: Θεσσαλονίκη — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 83).
#1Palermo
Strengths
Cost advantage (71) · Growth momentum (53)
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%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (83) · Energy cost (58)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Palermo
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%). Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 1) — Θεσσαλονίκη may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Θεσσαλονίκη · Manufacturing → Θεσσαλονίκη · Office → Θεσσαλονίκη · Residential → Palermo.
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
43.1
46.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
20.5
28.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
22.4
22.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
6.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
33.0
33.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
37.3
7.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
55.8
53.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.9% 5y
4.0% 5y
Population
0.4% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.7% 5y
3.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€18,174
€23,978
Population density
293 /km²
239 /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)
€17,155M
€25,821M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€349M
€613M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,113M
€1,715M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,517M
€952M
GVA — construction (F)
€345M
€1,449M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,548M
€7,219M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€12,400
€16,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
22,400 PPS
24,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€18,100
€23,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€5,199M
€24,161M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€548M
€2,214M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,333M
€40,753M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€2,320M
€3,611M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€416M
€607M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€4,063M
€6,809M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€4,737M
€8,013M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€17,874M
€26,971M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€39,572
€73,835
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,851M
€6,587M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
540,470
396,100
Self-employed persons
112,440
95,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
58,040
19,600
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
70.7%
54.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
23.3%
33.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.7%
12.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
516,800
423,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
94,881
69,396
Enterprise births
8,770
6,472
Enterprise deaths
4,112
3,933
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.9%
4.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.7%
2.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.5%
0.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.4%
16.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
44.3%
24.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
5.5%
7.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.3%
15.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.9%
3.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
90.9%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,801,464
6,116,569
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
474 /1k
733 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
18,704 kt
10,455 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2
1,580
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
24 km/1000km²
28 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
0
132
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
21
56
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)
708,030
758,596
Population aged 65+
236,674
278,988
Population aged under 15
137,139
161,154
Median age of population
46.3 yrs
47.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.4%
36.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-2.2 /1k
-1.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.0 /1k
2.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.5 /1k
7.3 /1k
Crude death rate
10.7 /1k
10.7 /1k
Live births
7,025
8,762
Deaths
11,551
12,795
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
52.8%
58.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.12
1.31
Population density (persons per km²)
305 /km²
241 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
759,701
870,407
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
33.0%
44.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.7 yrs
82.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
24.2%
38.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
451 /100k
288 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,185 /100k
1,031 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
244 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
32.8 /100k
45.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
264 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
948 /100k
1,807 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.56
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.42
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.49
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.32
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.24
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.143/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
70 m
288 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
70 days/yr
49 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
23 days/yr
1 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
7 days/yr
5 days/yr