NUTS-3 FR101 · France
Population
2,065,5602025
GDP
€279,938M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
76.5%2025
Active firms
1,341,5642026
Cadastral parcels
78,1802026
Area
99.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FR101 · NL224
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zuidwest-Gelderland (Opportunity 77). Runner-up: Paris (71). Contrarian pick: Paris — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 100).
Strengths
Freight intensity (95) · Digital readiness (94)
Red flags
Flood: 70% of population in the 100-year floodplain
#2Paris
Strengths
Economic base (100) · Demographic outlook (98)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Zuidwest-Gelderland
Flood: 70% of population in the 100-year floodplain. Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 25) — Paris may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zuidwest-Gelderland 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
70.7
76.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
40.8
81.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.4
67.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
24.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
75.3
65.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
94.5
89.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
23.4
70.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.4% 5y
2.2% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.4% 5y
1.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€135,526
€52,802
Population density
20,702 /km²
337 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
38
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
649
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€250,270M
€12,186M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€0M
€672M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€7,888M
€1,542M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,248M
€1,397M
GVA — construction (F)
€3,914M
€905M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€74,177M
€3,445M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€29,600
€26,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
123,100 PPS
45,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€133,700
€53,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€192,308M
€23,257M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€9,999M
€2,035M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€456,581M
€50,437M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€25,119M
€959M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€35,404M
€278M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€109,776M
€2,919M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€54,514M
€1,793M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€257,907M
€11,233M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€126,771
€102,003
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€63,202M
€3,004M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
2,250,500
139,200
Self-employed persons
190,700
28,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
46,800
12,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.6%
86.2%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
21.2%
7.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.8%
3.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
1,097,400
146,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
439,969
33,565
Enterprise births
63,928
2,667
Enterprise deaths
48,417
1,481
3-year enterprise survival rate
7.2%
6.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.9%
—
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
9.1%
4.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
3.0%
—
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
58.6%
44.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
72.7%
53.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.0%
25.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
40.1%
30.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
14.1%
12.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.2%
99.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
47,271,179
723,883
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
433 /1k
523 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,788 kt
15,978 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
4,154
692
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
52 km/1000km²
81 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
201
269
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
14
46
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
1,435,254
162,741
Population aged 65+
388,063
52,960
Population aged under 15
242,243
41,462
Median age of population
39.2 yrs
43.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
27.0%
32.5%
Crude rate of total population change
-9.3 /1k
5.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-12.9 /1k
4.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.4 /1k
10.2 /1k
Crude death rate
6.8 /1k
8.9 /1k
Live births
21,484
2,623
Deaths
14,079
2,278
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
43.9%
58.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.27
1.78
Population density (persons per km²)
20,148 /km²
365 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
2,135,136
246,870
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.9%
14.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
84.6 yrs
81.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.9%
12.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
473 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
761 /100k
1,014 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
192 /100k
249 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.3 /100k
—
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
374 /100k
11.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
607 /100k
163 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
6,316 /100k
799 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
21 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
1.77
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
1.72
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
1.73
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
1.92
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
0.63
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.142/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
39 m
4 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
12 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
33 days/yr
30 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr