NUTS-3 ES418 · Spain
Population
528,6442025
GDP
€16,425M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
74.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
8,115.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES418 · ES130
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Cantabria (Opportunity 55). Runner-up: Valladolid (53).
Strengths
Energy cost (95) · Freight intensity (75)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Cantabria
Its weakest dimension is Connectivity (EU pctl 18) — Valladolid may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Cantabria · Manufacturing → Valladolid · Office → Cantabria · Residential → Cantabria.
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
53.4
54.6
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
47.0
47.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
51.6
55.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
43.7
56.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
17.3
17.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
60.3
68.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.8
63.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.1% 5y
3.8% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.6% 5y
9.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€31,071
€28,201
Population density
65 /km²
111 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 87 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€14,905M
€15,257M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€371M
€256M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,938M
€3,306M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,910M
€2,718M
GVA — construction (F)
€681M
€1,001M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,219M
€3,594M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€18,500
€18,300
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
35,200 PPS
31,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€31,400
€28,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€13,527M
€3,560M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,707M
€736M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€32,274M
€7,994M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,307M
€3,706M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,388M
€3,392M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€15,077M
€15,639M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€74,524
€75,208
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,606M
€4,038M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
237,100
237,900
Self-employed persons
34,900
38,000
Employment in manufacturing (C)
34,600
31,400
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
75.7%
73.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
24.7%
19.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.6%
7.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
257,300
286,700
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
32,860
40,384
Enterprise births
2,319
3,014
Enterprise deaths
2,185
2,707
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.6%
4.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.4%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.3%
3.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.1%
0.9%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.1%
47.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
52.3%
59.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
15.3%
15.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.8%
25.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.3%
7.6%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.0%
96.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,561,276
6,117,130
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
601 /1k
570 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
21,758 kt
24,662 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
75
96
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
26 km/1000km²
48 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
14
16
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
165
111
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
333,453
380,589
Population aged 65+
132,920
145,544
Population aged under 15
62,271
67,490
Median age of population
49.2 yrs
48.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
39.9%
38.2%
Crude rate of total population change
6.7 /1k
4.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
10.7 /1k
9.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.8 /1k
5.1 /1k
Crude death rate
9.8 /1k
10.3 /1k
Live births
3,048
3,013
Deaths
5,140
6,105
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
58.5%
56.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.14
0.99
Population density (persons per km²)
65 /km²
112 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
328,102
397,244
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.1%
19.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.8 yrs
84.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
19.8%
13.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
343 /100k
307 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
749 /100k
772 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
212 /100k
216 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.4 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
33.1 /100k
41.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
245 /100k
322 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
164 /100k
196 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
68 /M
32 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
1.14
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
0.84
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
0.96
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.78
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.16
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.106/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
702 m
932 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
52 days/yr
2 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
42 days/yr
40 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
13 days/yr