NUTS-3 ES612 · Spain
Population
1,261,4202025
GDP
€26,784M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
15.2%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
65.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
7,442.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES612 · ES512
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Girona (Opportunity 68). Runner-up: Cádiz (52). Contrarian pick: Cádiz — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 78).
#2Cádiz
Strengths
Energy cost (95) · Cost advantage (78)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Girona
Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 31) — Cádiz may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Girona 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
52.1
68.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
37.8
44.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
38.3
58.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
34.7
52.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
23.0
53.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
46.8
76.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
60.0
81.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.8% 5y
7.0% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
1.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
7.2% 5y
7.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€21,233
€35,111
Population density
169 /km²
140 /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)
€24,441M
€26,607M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€844M
€725M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,445M
€4,516M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,685M
€4,080M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,447M
€1,625M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€6,139M
€8,323M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€14,700
€19,900
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
23,900 PPS
40,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€21,300
€35,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€38,703M
€57,689M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,996M
€9,484M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€98,864M
€147,909M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€5,848M
€6,596M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€6,718M
€4,823M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€24,638M
€27,668M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€67,873
€79,614
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,897M
€6,735M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
423,100
393,600
Self-employed persons
64,200
61,500
Employment in manufacturing (C)
29,900
58,000
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
71.4%
77.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
32.7%
19.1%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
15.2%
8.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
613,300
434,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
69,086
67,916
Enterprise births
6,848
6,157
Enterprise deaths
5,958
5,177
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.5%
4.1%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.1%
1.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.0%
6.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
1.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.7%
46.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
45.4%
57.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.7%
16.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.4%
28.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.7%
8.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.5%
98.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
11,137,847
24,474,095
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
535 /1k
450 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
26,508 kt
25,266 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
36
1,036
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
31 km/1000km²
46 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
3
125
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
66
19
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
849,694
553,202
Population aged 65+
242,742
159,287
Population aged under 15
168,984
117,940
Median age of population
45.4 yrs
44.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
28.6%
28.8%
Crude rate of total population change
2.1 /1k
11.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.2 /1k
12.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.3 /1k
7.0 /1k
Crude death rate
8.4 /1k
8.2 /1k
Live births
7,992
5,758
Deaths
10,597
6,731
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
48.5%
50.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.11
1.19
Population density (persons per km²)
172 /km²
140 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
941,850
865,193
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
34.7%
21.3%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.9 yrs
84.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
27.7%
14.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
217 /100k
360 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
972 /100k
806 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
217 /100k
208 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.9 /100k
1.1 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
58.5 /100k
146 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
211 /100k
524 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
280 /100k
846 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
41 /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)
66 m
101 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
73 days/yr
54 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
14 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
7 days/yr
7 days/yr