NUTS-3 FRL03 · France
Population
1,145,5102025
GDP
€51,847M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
74.4%2025
Active firms
424,3872026
Cadastral parcels
791,8842026
Area
4,302.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRL03 · ES213
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Bizkaia (Opportunity 63). Runner-up: Alpes-Maritimes (61).
Strengths
Energy cost (88) · Economic base (79)
Red flags
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Bizkaia
Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 23) — Alpes-Maritimes may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Bizkaia 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
60.5
63.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
54.5
43.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
49.4
65.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
26.0
52.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
62.0
54.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
75.8
88.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
52.6
58.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.0% 5y
4.6% 5y
Population
0.9% 5y
0.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.8% 5y
8.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€45,261
€37,893
Population density
266 /km²
530 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
691
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
370
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€46,321M
€40,258M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€27M
€161M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,793M
€8,090M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€3,037M
€6,288M
GVA — construction (F)
€2,480M
€2,948M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€12,364M
€10,245M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,900
€24,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
42,500 PPS
42,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€46,200
€38,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€49,335M
€16,022M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,075M
€3,378M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€105,791M
€43,785M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€10,119M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€3,587M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€16,612M
€10,535M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€11,045M
€8,279M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€46,311M
€41,341M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€101,714
€87,864
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€11,928M
€9,266M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
519,500
535,900
Self-employed persons
84,400
63,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
27,400
71,800
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
73.4%
74.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
22.6%
18.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
7.3%
7.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
501,300
561,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
137,086
76,366
Enterprise births
19,375
5,884
Enterprise deaths
15,176
5,500
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.3%
4.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.1%
2.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
4.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.6%
2.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.5%
58.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
52.3%
68.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.2%
19.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
29.8%
32.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.7%
10.6%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.1%
97.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
13,984,430
4,279,719
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
593 /1k
478 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
9,272 kt
32,746 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
6,269
2,339
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
24 km/1000km²
70 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
547
200
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
29
8
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
683,327
743,901
Population aged 65+
294,039
287,881
Population aged under 15
168,144
135,451
Median age of population
46.5 yrs
48.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
43.0%
38.7%
Crude rate of total population change
7.4 /1k
6.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
9.5 /1k
11.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.7 /1k
5.5 /1k
Crude death rate
10.8 /1k
10.4 /1k
Live births
9,920
6,426
Deaths
12,313
12,045
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
67.6%
56.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.53
1.05
Population density (persons per km²)
266 /km²
528 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
1,054,902
937,163
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.7%
14.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.8 yrs
84.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.1%
9.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
625 /100k
327 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
851 /100k
779 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
202 /100k
216 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.3 /100k
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
104 /100k
124 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
380 /100k
296 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,233 /100k
512 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
56 /M
21 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.46
1.14
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.27
0.84
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.02
0.96
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.39
0.78
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.02
0.16
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.107/kWh
€0.106/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.053/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
877 m
105 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
3 days/yr
13 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
62 days/yr
7 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
12 days/yr
11 days/yr