NUTS-3 FRI32 · France
Population
681,6472025
GDP
€22,000M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
6.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77.2%2025
Active firms
182,6702026
Cadastral parcels
1,702,6502026
Area
6,880.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRI32 · ITH42
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Charente-Maritime (Opportunity 55). Runner-up: Udine (51). Contrarian pick: Udine — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 72).
Strengths
Energy cost (88) · Air quality (70)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
#2Udine
Strengths
Industrial base (72) · Economic base (71)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 20 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Charente-Maritime
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 13) — Udine may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Charente-Maritime 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
54.9
51.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
69.3
50.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
50.0
45.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
70.3
22.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
32.0
38.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
67.8
29.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
56.4
35.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.9% 5y
2.6% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.7% 5y
7.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€32,275
€37,783
Population density
99 /km²
106 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
2,498
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
268
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€19,621M
€17,525M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€765M
€246M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,967M
€4,371M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,550M
€4,025M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,345M
€1,024M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,690M
€3,589M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€23,200
€23,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
30,000 PPS
39,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€32,500
€37,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€14,628M
€10,531M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,666M
€2,200M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€31,119M
€18,713M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€4,261M
€2,067M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€224M
€252M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€6,356M
€4,626M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€5,498M
€3,667M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€19,581M
€17,719M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€82,980
€83,368
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,075M
€4,630M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
270,200
240,800
Self-employed persons
43,400
53,600
Employment in manufacturing (C)
21,400
45,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
74.1%
72.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
19.4%
12.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.4%
4.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
281,200
238,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
57,570
39,420
Enterprise births
6,921
2,553
Enterprise deaths
5,738
2,297
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.0%
3.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.8%
1.7%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.2%
3.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.6%
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
40.6%
24.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
46.7%
35.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.8%
13.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.8%
18.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.6%
4.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.3%
96.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
12,561,780
6,135,131
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
—
695 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,817
6
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
21,684 kt
14,246 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
12 km/1000km²
35 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
413
1
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
100
39
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
381,275
316,550
Population aged 65+
207,664
145,679
Population aged under 15
92,708
54,094
Median age of population
50.9 yrs
52.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
54.5%
46.0%
Crude rate of total population change
6.7 /1k
-1.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
12.7 /1k
5.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.8 /1k
5.5 /1k
Crude death rate
12.8 /1k
12.2 /1k
Live births
4,619
2,851
Deaths
8,679
6,303
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
78.8%
63.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.47
1.16
Population density (persons per km²)
99 /km²
109 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
620,027
415,885
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
17.6%
11.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.5 yrs
84.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
13.3%
9.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
493 /100k
312 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
848 /100k
899 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
226 /100k
216 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.4 /100k
0.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
26.6 /100k
19.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
512 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,536 /100k
895 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
68 /M
61 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
39 m
153 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
16 days/yr
18 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
15 days/yr
54 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
28 days/yr