NUTS-3 ES511 · Spain
Population
5,959,9412025
GDP
€209,564M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
76.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
7,723.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES511 · ITI43
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Barcelona (Opportunity 72). Runner-up: Roma (64). Contrarian pick: Roma — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 88).
#2Roma
Strengths
Economic base (88) · Demographic outlook (87)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Barcelona
Its weakest dimension is Air quality (EU pctl 18) — Roma may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Barcelona 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
71.9
63.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
42.5
36.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
54.1
43.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
18.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
49.0
68.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
76.8
40.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
68.4
46.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.2% 5y
2.9% 5y
Population
0.9% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
7.6% 5y
9.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€35,162
€47,669
Population density
772 /km²
788 /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)
€190,895M
€180,828M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€880M
€627M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€35,438M
€19,205M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€29,449M
€7,473M
GVA — construction (F)
€9,083M
€8,289M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€55,126M
€50,714M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€19,900
€22,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
40,300 PPS
49,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€35,900
€47,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€57,689M
€50,148M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€9,484M
€4,606M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€147,909M
€95,178M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€20,749M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€14,838M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€55,293M
€58,757M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€35,076M
€43,236M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€198,856M
€182,926M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€78,611
€92,765
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€48,409M
€42,460M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
2,865,100
2,218,000
Self-employed persons
368,800
433,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
341,000
86,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.4%
68.0%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
19.1%
21.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.4%
5.5%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
3,145,800
1,912,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
489,832
368,840
Enterprise births
46,485
35,222
Enterprise deaths
39,035
21,718
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.2%
4.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.9%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.6%
7.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.5%
1.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
46.9%
28.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
57.5%
37.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
16.2%
10.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.1%
23.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.8%
6.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.5%
96.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
41,221,572
56,002,908
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
450 /1k
701 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
141,294 kt
31,686 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
10,112
12,367
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
46 km/1000km²
29 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
170
293
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
52
7
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
4,007,868
2,728,595
Population aged 65+
1,174,289
984,903
Population aged under 15
777,784
509,150
Median age of population
44.4 yrs
48.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
29.3%
36.1%
Crude rate of total population change
13.9 /1k
-0.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
15.6 /1k
3.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
6.0 /1k
Crude death rate
8.2 /1k
10.4 /1k
Live births
39,034
25,200
Deaths
48,823
43,812
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
48.7%
54.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.04
1.10
Population density (persons per km²)
767 /km²
800 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
7,319,537
3,969,742
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
21.3%
20.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.3 yrs
83.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.3%
17.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
360 /100k
350 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
806 /100k
907 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
208 /100k
226 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
0.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
371 /100k
71.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
342 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,112 /100k
3,149 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
32 /M
56 /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)
368 m
78 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
45 days/yr
65 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
21 days/yr
6 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
10 days/yr