NUTS-3 FRI31 · France
Population
352,6772025
GDP
€12,930M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
6.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77.2%2025
Active firms
77,6602026
Cadastral parcels
1,210,1862026
Area
5,984.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRI31 · FRI14
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Charente (Opportunity 48). Runner-up: Lot-et-Garonne (47). Contrarian pick: Lot-et-Garonne — leads the set on Talent & skills (EU pctl 74).
Why you might not pick Charente
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 23) — Lot-et-Garonne may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Charente 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
47.8
46.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
69.8
71.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
49.3
54.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
58.0
68.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
37.7
26.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
67.8
74.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
42.8
39.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.1% 5y
1.9% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.7% 5y
1.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€36,661
€31,984
Population density
59 /km²
62 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
3,431
2,598
Firms per 1k pop
220
251
All indicators · 88 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€11,551M
€9,556M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€651M
€486M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,766M
€1,389M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,571M
€1,140M
GVA — construction (F)
€647M
€600M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,121M
€1,806M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€23,200
€24,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
33,900 PPS
29,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€36,900
€32,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€14,628M
€30,151M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,666M
€2,628M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€31,119M
€68,404M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,716M
€1,555M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€188M
€88M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,592M
€2,535M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,774M
€2,742M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€11,508M
€9,609M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€88,618
€81,126
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,983M
€2,419M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
148,700
134,600
Self-employed persons
19,200
19,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
21,400
13,600
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.1%
79.0%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
19.4%
18.1%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.4%
7.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
150,600
150,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
23,957
24,549
Enterprise births
2,979
2,968
Enterprise deaths
2,390
2,425
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.0%
5.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.8%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.2%
4.2%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.6%
1.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
40.6%
44.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
46.7%
53.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.8%
18.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.8%
27.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.6%
8.4%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.3%
96.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
689,529
1,581,807
Mobility
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
15,919 kt
9,078 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,242
906
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
12 km/1000km²
21 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
636
271
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
114
106
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)
204,245
189,526
Population aged 65+
97,811
94,472
Population aged under 15
50,621
50,997
Median age of population
48.9 yrs
48.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
47.9%
49.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.1 /1k
1.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.6 /1k
6.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.5 /1k
7.7 /1k
Crude death rate
12.3 /1k
12.5 /1k
Live births
2,662
2,564
Deaths
4,324
4,175
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
72.7%
76.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.55
1.58
Population density (persons per km²)
59 /km²
63 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
296,847
291,563
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
17.6%
19.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.5 yrs
83.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
13.3%
15.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
493 /100k
545 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
848 /100k
807 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
226 /100k
222 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.1 /100k
1.2 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
40.8 /100k
26.0 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
456 /100k
438 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,422 /100k
1,337 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
68 /M
57 /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)
69 m
36 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
20 days/yr
34 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
22 days/yr
19 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
4 days/yr