NUTS-3 ES243 · Spain
Population
998,4432025
GDP
€34,286M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75.6%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
17,253.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES243 · ITG17
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zaragoza (Opportunity 59). Runner-up: Catania (46). Contrarian pick: Catania — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 71).
#2Catania
Strengths
Cost advantage (71) · Demographic outlook (66)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Zaragoza
Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 29) — Catania may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zaragoza 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
59.2
46.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
50.8
42.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
52.7
20.8
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
45.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
40.7
35.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
61.3
7.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
66.2
54.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.1% 5y
3.7% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
7.9% 5y
4.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€34,340
€22,889
Population density
58 /km²
301 /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)
€31,231M
€22,005M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€1,373M
€834M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€7,898M
€2,357M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€6,054M
€1,889M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,527M
€1,429M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€7,274M
€5,623M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€19,900
€16,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
39,100 PPS
23,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€34,900
€22,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€9,383M
€24,161M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,967M
€2,214M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€22,292M
€40,753M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€3,256M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€510M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€6,624M
€5,975M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€6,536M
€5,786M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€30,911M
€22,985M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€78,043
€69,002
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€7,801M
€5,614M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
468,100
361,200
Self-employed persons
60,300
89,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
75,700
28,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.1%
54.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
24.1%
33.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.0%
12.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
501,200
381,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
63,677
68,454
Enterprise births
4,897
6,184
Enterprise deaths
4,539
4,007
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.5%
4.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.2%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.6%
2.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.2%
0.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.0%
16.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
49.6%
24.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
15.1%
7.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.7%
15.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.7%
3.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
97.6%
90.9%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,401,018
3,245,943
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
499 /1k
733 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
51,717 kt
12,616 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
44
2
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
18 km/1000km²
28 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
4
0
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
22
23
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)
648,918
683,238
Population aged 65+
221,382
240,101
Population aged under 15
128,143
146,830
Median age of population
46.7 yrs
46.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.1%
35.1%
Crude rate of total population change
10.8 /1k
-1.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
14.3 /1k
0.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.3 /1k
7.6 /1k
Crude death rate
9.8 /1k
10.0 /1k
Live births
6,213
8,107
Deaths
9,706
10,725
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.9%
56.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.12
1.32
Population density (persons per km²)
58 /km²
301 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
829,042
882,571
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
19.1%
44.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.3 yrs
82.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
13.6%
38.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
352 /100k
288 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
812 /100k
1,031 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
226 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
126 /100k
39.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
270 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
254 /100k
1,859 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
53 /M
50 /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)
219 m
83 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
74 days/yr
103 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
11 days/yr
1 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
4 days/yr