NUTS-3 ES230 · Spain
Population
326,8032025
GDP
€10,477M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
5,050.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES230 · SI032
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: La Rioja (Opportunity 50). Runner-up: Podravska (49). Contrarian pick: Podravska — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 72).
Why you might not pick La Rioja
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Connectivity (EU pctl 14) — Podravska may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
La Rioja 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
50.3
49.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
53.5
53.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
52.8
35.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
62.0
21.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
13.7
28.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
48.0
57.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
59.2
69.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.8% 5y
3.7% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.6% 5y
9.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€32,058
€26,026
Population density
65 /km²
153 /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)
€9,548M
€7,646M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€484M
€148M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,520M
€1,952M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,049M
€1,654M
GVA — construction (F)
€531M
€672M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,012M
€1,435M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€18,900
€16,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
36,400 PPS
29,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€32,400
€26,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€1,685M
€6,367M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€441M
€1,605M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€4,737M
€14,558M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€659M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€220M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,946M
€1,801M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,055M
€1,639M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€9,872M
€7,080M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€77,437
€57,347
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,911M
€2,101M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
146,300
158,130
Self-employed persons
24,300
31,690
Employment in manufacturing (C)
26,500
33,620
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.4%
74.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
25.5%
13.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.1%
4.2%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
166,300
160,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
22,502
26,888
Enterprise births
1,532
2,875
Enterprise deaths
1,520
1,654
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.4%
5.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.9%
1.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.2%
4.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.9%
0.9%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.4%
31.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.9%
40.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
14.8%
20.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
20.6%
23.2%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.0%
8.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
97.1%
92.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,675,862
954,087
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
516 /1k
592 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
12,205 kt
7,482 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
6
4
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
36 km/1000km²
26 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
2
1
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
120
61
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
210,722
211,563
Population aged 65+
73,503
75,664
Population aged under 15
42,578
44,588
Median age of population
47.0 yrs
46.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.9%
35.8%
Crude rate of total population change
8.0 /1k
3.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
11.9 /1k
7.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.3 /1k
7.2 /1k
Crude death rate
10.2 /1k
11.0 /1k
Live births
2,049
2,396
Deaths
3,306
3,646
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.1%
56.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.16
1.43
Population density (persons per km²)
65 /km²
155 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
234,440
293,671
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
22.8%
17.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.9 yrs
81.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
18.4%
16.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
319 /100k
340 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
815 /100k
1,141 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
204 /100k
285 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.9 /100k
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
37.9 /100k
9.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
308 /100k
203 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
253 /100k
808 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
43 /M
32 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
1.26
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
0.74
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
0.92
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.75
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.77
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.132/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.051/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
1,151 m
230 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
16 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
78 days/yr
72 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
9 days/yr