NUTS-3 ES703 · Spain
Population
11,9932025
GDP
€232M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
13.5%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
67.7%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
267.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ES703 · HR032
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: El Hierro (Opportunity 31). Runner-up: Ličko-senjska županija (30). Contrarian pick: Ličko-senjska županija — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 90).
Strengths
Demographic outlook (99) · Energy cost (95)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (90) · Air quality (86)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick El Hierro
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Connectivity (EU bottom 15%); Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%); Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 2) — Ličko-senjska županija may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Ličko-senjska županija · Manufacturing → Ličko-senjska županija · Office → El Hierro · Residential → El Hierro.
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
30.5
30.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
35.5
35.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
47.4
30.6
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
85.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
2.5
23.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
38.8
36.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
73.4
79.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.7% 5y
7.2% 5y
Population
1.5% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
10.1% 5y
5.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€19,336
€18,772
Population density
45 /km²
8 /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)
€218M
€672M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€12M
€70M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€16M
€55M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€6M
€19M
GVA — construction (F)
€15M
€102M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€57M
€184M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€15,300
€11,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
22,200 PPS
26,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€19,800
€18,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,461M
€7,641M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€298M
€658M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€28,532M
€13,216M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€84M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€14M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€41M
€113M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€78M
€148M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€221M
€644M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€57,958
€45,125
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€41M
€248M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
4,300
19,170
Self-employed persons
800
3,340
Employment in manufacturing (C)
100
1,510
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
73.1%
72.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
29.5%
18.0%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
13.3%
5.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
6,000
19,600
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
718
2,029
Enterprise births
85
256
Enterprise deaths
63
98
3-year enterprise survival rate
2.9%
4.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.6%
0.7%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.1%
2.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.3%
31.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
43.7%
43.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.1%
6.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
17.6%
23.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.8%
6.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
97.3%
87.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
151,519
2,966,687
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
609 /1k
549 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
—
13
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
119 kt
1,085 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
39 km/1000km²
27 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
—
30
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
148
68
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
7,981
26,445
Population aged 65+
2,752
11,151
Population aged under 15
1,260
5,604
Median age of population
47.8 yrs
48.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.5%
42.2%
Crude rate of total population change
17.4 /1k
8.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
20.7 /1k
18.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.0 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude death rate
8.3 /1k
18.3 /1k
Live births
60
346
Deaths
99
785
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
50.3%
63.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
0.85
1.55
Population density (persons per km²)
45 /km²
8 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
17,593
22,811
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
31.2%
20.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.9 yrs
79.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
22.9%
19.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
290 /100k
531 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
826 /100k
1,391 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
214 /100k
295 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
2.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
8.5 /100k
9.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
59.4 /100k
269 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
161 /100k
483 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
31 /M
75 /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
0.30
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.96
0.43
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.78
0.11
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.16
0.73
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.106/kWh
€0.126/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
876 m
691 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
3 days/yr
13 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
86 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
1 days/yr
17 days/yr