NUTS-3 FRC12 · France
Population
200,1882025
GDP
€5,913M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75.5%2025
Active firms
43,2632026
Cadastral parcels
682,7312026
Area
6,885.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRC12 · FRJ25
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Lot (Opportunity 40). Runner-up: Nièvre (36). Contrarian pick: Nièvre — leads the set on Air quality (EU pctl 96).
Why you might not pick Lot
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 22) — Nièvre may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Lot 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
36.0
39.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
54.5
65.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
46.9
57.6
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
96.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
31.3
25.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
53.0
91.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
30.2
37.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.1% 5y
1.1% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.7% 5y
3.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€29,537
€34,060
Population density
29 /km²
34 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
3,410
6,262
Firms per 1k pop
216
290
All indicators · 88 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€5,270M
€5,389M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€320M
€116M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€647M
€966M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€554M
€869M
GVA — construction (F)
€262M
€300M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€867M
€1,140M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€23,100
€23,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
27,300 PPS
31,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€29,600
€34,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€12,851M
€27,134M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,525M
€3,274M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€28,666M
€63,709M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,098M
€1,011M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€30M
€466M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,483M
€1,545M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,692M
€1,322M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,258M
€5,442M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€81,326
€89,463
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,331M
€1,345M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
74,100
68,700
Self-employed persons
9,900
13,100
Employment in manufacturing (C)
7,800
9,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.3%
76.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
19.2%
15.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.9%
6.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
82,600
74,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
11,495
14,989
Enterprise births
1,486
1,582
Enterprise deaths
1,086
1,482
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.9%
5.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.8%
4.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.7%
7.1%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.7%
2.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.1%
47.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
43.8%
56.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
12.3%
18.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.3%
33.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.7%
14.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
92.3%
95.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
752,412
1,885,015
Mobility
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,869 kt
3,842 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
980
532
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
22 km/1000km²
14 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
490
300
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
151
113
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
110,204
96,346
Population aged 65+
62,783
57,799
Population aged under 15
27,201
22,923
Median age of population
52.0 yrs
53.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
57.0%
60.0%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.1 /1k
1.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.5 /1k
9.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.7 /1k
6.1 /1k
Crude death rate
15.3 /1k
13.9 /1k
Live births
1,339
1,072
Deaths
3,069
2,464
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
81.7%
83.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.53
1.45
Population density (persons per km²)
29 /km²
34 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
141,689
149,616
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.4%
23.3%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
83.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.1%
18.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
632 /100k
564 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
864 /100k
780 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
227 /100k
211 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.0 /100k
0.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
25.4 /100k
32.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
585 /100k
431 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,354 /100k
968 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
62 /M
60 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
1.46
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
1.27
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
1.02
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
1.39
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
0.02
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.053/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
271 m
348 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
14 days/yr
21 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
36 days/yr
26 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
7 days/yr