NUTS-3 ES423 · Spain
Population
199,8592025
GDP
€5,860M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
12.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
17,156.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES423 · ITG15
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Cuenca (Opportunity 43). Runner-up: Caltanissetta (33).
#1Cuenca
Strengths
Freight intensity (98) · Energy cost (95)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (71) · Growth momentum (52)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 13 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Cuenca
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 7) — Caltanissetta may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Cuenca 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
43.1
33.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
47.8
35.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
39.0
28.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
16.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
19.3
12.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
45.3
7.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
68.4
51.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.2% 5y
3.4% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.3% 5y
0.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€29,320
€20,665
Population density
12 /km²
115 /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)
€5,347M
€4,556M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€704M
€282M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,226M
€434M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€541M
€241M
GVA — construction (F)
€322M
€426M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,257M
€879M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€15,800
€16,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
33,100 PPS
21,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€29,500
€20,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€9,963M
€24,161M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,892M
€2,214M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,774M
€40,753M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€686M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€51M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€818M
€1,200M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,020M
€1,335M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,219M
€4,759M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€74,451
€69,449
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,260M
€1,162M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
85,000
74,300
Self-employed persons
17,500
18,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
10,200
5,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.4%
54.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
27.6%
33.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
12.7%
12.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
97,500
87,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
13,584
13,701
Enterprise births
955
1,166
Enterprise deaths
909
788
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.4%
4.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.6%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.7%
2.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
0.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
33.3%
16.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
47.4%
24.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
14.0%
7.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.8%
15.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.6%
3.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.3%
90.9%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
964,798
275,528
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
599 /1k
733 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
16,629 kt
992 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
59
1
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
23 km/1000km²
28 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
30
0
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
136
96
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
129,115
156,417
Population aged 65+
47,166
58,686
Population aged under 15
23,578
30,318
Median age of population
47.9 yrs
47.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
36.5%
37.5%
Crude rate of total population change
4.2 /1k
-6.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
9.3 /1k
-2.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
6.7 /1k
Crude death rate
11.7 /1k
11.4 /1k
Live births
1,322
1,640
Deaths
2,335
2,797
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
54.8%
56.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.22
1.20
Population density (persons per km²)
12 /km²
116 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
112,700
164,385
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
34.0%
44.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.9 yrs
82.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
25.9%
38.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
236 /100k
288 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
837 /100k
1,031 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
206 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.5 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
30.6 /100k
13.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
337 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
152 /100k
533 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /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)
1,045 m
413 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
53 days/yr
79 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
54 days/yr
4 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
5 days/yr