NUTS-3 ES523 · Spain
Population
2,763,9962025
GDP
€75,522M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
10,812.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES523 · HU110
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Budapest (Opportunity 65). Runner-up: Valencia/València (65). Contrarian pick: Valencia/València — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 95).
#1Budapest
Strengths
Economic base (96) · Talent & skills (94)
Red flags
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Energy cost (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Energy cost (95) · Digital readiness (88)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Budapest
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%); Industrial base (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%); Energy cost (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Energy cost (EU pctl 2) — Valencia/València may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Budapest · Manufacturing → Valencia/València · Office → Budapest · Residential → Budapest.
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
64.7
65.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
50.8
24.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
49.8
53.6
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
55.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
47.0
61.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
60.3
94.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
72.8
63.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.4% 5y
3.3% 5y
Population
1.4% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.4% 5y
0.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€27,323
€47,591
Population density
256 /km²
3,207 /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)
€68,749M
€68,915M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€1,660M
€123M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€13,526M
€8,345M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€10,338M
€5,511M
GVA — construction (F)
€3,918M
€2,529M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€17,811M
€20,091M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€16,000
€18,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
31,600 PPS
67,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€28,100
€47,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€25,331M
€12,429M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,983M
€1,051M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€70,224M
€31,410M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€8,594M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€6,915M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€17,799M
€25,310M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€14,035M
€12,517M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€70,815M
€60,734M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€71,199
€50,811
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€15,538M
€11,934M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
1,140,300
1,668,320
Self-employed persons
167,100
67,050
Employment in manufacturing (C)
139,000
119,430
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.1%
81.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
30.5%
13.0%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.6%
3.2%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
1,406,300
949,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
196,322
245,891
Enterprise births
20,100
23,759
Enterprise deaths
16,308
6,945
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.3%
5.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.2%
2.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.3%
12.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.0%
4.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
38.1%
59.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
53.1%
62.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.3%
16.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.2%
46.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.0%
16.6%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.0%
96.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
13,171,283
11,677,423
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
510 /1k
429 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
115,701 kt
13,227 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
3,359
5,383
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
50 km/1000km²
120 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
122
319
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
32
11
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)
1,851,227
1,128,114
Population aged 65+
552,486
350,479
Population aged under 15
360,283
206,616
Median age of population
45.4 yrs
44.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
29.8%
31.1%
Crude rate of total population change
19.4 /1k
-0.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
21.5 /1k
4.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
7.5 /1k
Crude death rate
8.7 /1k
12.2 /1k
Live births
18,147
12,634
Deaths
23,864
20,564
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
49.3%
49.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.11
1.07
Population density (persons per km²)
255 /km²
3,305 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
2,332,960
1,540,845
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
30.7%
10.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.5 yrs
78.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
26.0%
7.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
219 /100k
930 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
900 /100k
1,374 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
213 /100k
291 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.3 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
132 /100k
10.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
373 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
430 /100k
928 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
30 /M
25 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.14
0.66
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.84
0.29
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
0.24
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.04
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.67
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.171/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
344 m
142 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
63 days/yr
26 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
72 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
4 days/yr