NUTS-3 ES213 · Spain
Population
1,167,2332025
GDP
€44,230M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
74.7%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
2,202.3 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES213 · ITH36
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Bizkaia (Opportunity 63). Runner-up: Padova (62). Contrarian pick: Padova — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 80).
#2Padova
Strengths
Economic base (80) · Industrial base (79)
Red flags
Flood: 30% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Long-run slide: down 13 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Bizkaia
Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 23) — Padova may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Padova · Manufacturing → Bizkaia · Office → Bizkaia · Residential → Bizkaia.
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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
63.2
61.6
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
43.8
49.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
65.7
43.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
52.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
54.7
47.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
88.5
27.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
58.2
48.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.6% 5y
2.8% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.2% 5y
11.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€37,893
€41,991
Population density
530 /km²
441 /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)
€40,258M
€35,168M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€161M
€499M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€8,090M
€9,668M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€6,288M
€9,075M
GVA — construction (F)
€2,948M
€2,247M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€10,245M
€8,239M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€24,200
€23,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
42,900 PPS
43,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€38,300
€42,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€16,022M
€45,490M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,378M
€10,941M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€43,785M
€75,959M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€4,045M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€1,208M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€10,535M
€9,198M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€8,279M
€5,316M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€41,341M
€35,264M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€87,864
€85,694
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€9,266M
€9,170M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
535,900
468,500
Self-employed persons
63,400
109,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
71,800
103,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.6%
71.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
18.6%
13.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
7.3%
3.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
561,800
440,700
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
76,366
84,949
Enterprise births
5,884
5,716
Enterprise deaths
5,500
4,878
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.9%
3.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.4%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.7%
3.2%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.2%
1.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
58.2%
21.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
68.6%
33.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
19.8%
13.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
32.5%
17.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.6%
5.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
97.5%
94.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,279,719
5,280,130
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
478 /1k
680 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
32,746 kt
27,591 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,339
102
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
70 km/1000km²
40 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
200
11
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
8
42
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
743,901
594,259
Population aged 65+
287,881
229,714
Population aged under 15
135,451
108,311
Median age of population
48.8 yrs
49.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
38.7%
38.7%
Crude rate of total population change
6.8 /1k
0.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
11.6 /1k
4.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.5 /1k
6.1 /1k
Crude death rate
10.4 /1k
10.2 /1k
Live births
6,426
5,677
Deaths
12,045
9,549
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.9%
56.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.05
1.15
Population density (persons per km²)
528 /km²
443 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
937,163
849,806
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.7%
14.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.7 yrs
84.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
9.3%
12.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
327 /100k
307 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
779 /100k
825 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
216 /100k
200 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.3 /100k
0.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
124 /100k
30.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
296 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
512 /100k
1,130 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
21 /M
55 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
105 m
15 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
13 days/yr
45 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
39 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
11 days/yr
11 days/yr