NUTS-3 FRG04 · France
Population
565,4032025
GDP
€17,882M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
6.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77.5%2025
Active firms
98,4952026
Cadastral parcels
787,9872026
Area
6,251.3 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRG04 · FI1C1
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Sarthe (Opportunity 54). Runner-up: Varsinais-Suomi (50). Contrarian pick: Varsinais-Suomi — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 99).
#1Sarthe
Strengths
Energy cost (88) · Air quality (81)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 19 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Sarthe
Long-run slide: down 19 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 23) — Varsinais-Suomi may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Sarthe 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
54.3
49.6
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
66.5
69.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
53.4
58.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
81.0
95.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
33.3
63.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
72.3
64.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
33.6
29.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.7% 5y
1.0% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.9% 5y
4.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€31,627
€46,119
Population density
90 /km²
46 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
1,394
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
174
FR-only
All indicators · 90 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€15,970M
€19,958M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€459M
€542M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,978M
€4,875M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,757M
€4,495M
GVA — construction (F)
€991M
€1,194M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,855M
€3,453M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€23,300
€23,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
29,000 PPS
38,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€31,500
€46,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€32,580M
€8,779M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,197M
€1,548M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€79,082M
€22,877M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€2,384M
€2,735M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€200M
€717M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€4,424M
€5,074M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€4,265M
€4,821M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€16,060M
€20,032M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€78,826
€101,190
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€4,006M
€3,902M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
231,200
230,320
Self-employed persons
22,800
26,790
Employment in manufacturing (C)
35,800
35,650
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.1%
79.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
16.1%
20.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.6%
9.5%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
258,100
253,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
28,733
42,342
Enterprise births
3,921
3,593
Enterprise deaths
2,972
3,512
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.1%
5.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.3%
1.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.5%
4.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.1%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.2%
39.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
54.9%
34.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
16.8%
26.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
26.5%
26.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.4%
9.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.3%
96.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,423,700
1,334,165
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
611 /1k
710 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,142
4,341
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
16,189 kt
13,152 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
379
877
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
23 km/1000km²
11 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
175
32
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
334,744
306,425
Population aged 65+
135,972
120,009
Population aged under 15
94,687
68,385
Median age of population
44.7 yrs
44.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
40.6%
39.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.5 /1k
8.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.2 /1k
11.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.0 /1k
7.6 /1k
Crude death rate
10.6 /1k
10.7 /1k
Live births
5,088
3,730
Deaths
6,021
5,293
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
68.9%
61.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.70
1.20
Population density (persons per km²)
91 /km²
46 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
488,143
400,016
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
15.7%
17.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.5 yrs
81.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
11.5%
12.7%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
450 /100k
256 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
799 /100k
944 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
223 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.4 /100k
1.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
57.4 /100k
34.2 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
485 /100k
152 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,302 /100k
2,325 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
47 /M
38 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
1.90
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
1.91
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
1.99
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
2.19
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
1.09
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.067/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.065/kWh
Housing market
Dwelling price per m² — old housing-company dwellings (Statistics Finland)
—
€2,293/m²
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
108 m
74 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
10 days/yr
1 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
143 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
2 days/yr