NUTS-3 FRL04 · France
Population
2,108,9632025
GDP
€96,176M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
74.4%2025
Active firms
579,3362026
Cadastral parcels
958,0262026
Area
5,270.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRL04 · ITF33
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Bouches-du-Rhône (Opportunity 65). Runner-up: Napoli (54). Contrarian pick: Napoli — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 73).
Strengths
Energy cost (88) · Economic base (79)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
#2Napoli
Strengths
Cost advantage (73) · Demographic outlook (59)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Bouches-du-Rhône
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 14) — Napoli may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Bouches-du-Rhône 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
64.7
54.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
40.0
33.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
47.8
20.8
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
28.0
2.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
63.0
56.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
75.8
11.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
63.8
51.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.2% 5y
3.8% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.8% 5y
8.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€45,603
€24,600
Population density
400 /km²
2,531 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
454
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
275
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€85,779M
€65,493M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€361M
€699M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€10,635M
€8,631M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€7,031M
€6,891M
GVA — construction (F)
€4,733M
€4,501M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€18,551M
€19,509M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,900
€16,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
42,500 PPS
25,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€46,200
€24,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€49,335M
€28,842M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,075M
€3,238M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€105,791M
€50,450M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€11,026M
€7,537M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€5,060M
€2,598M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€26,702M
€16,738M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€24,797M
€15,417M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€85,906M
€67,514M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€97,598
€71,953
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€22,125M
€16,051M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
1,004,300
1,037,900
Self-employed persons
113,700
240,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
65,800
110,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
73.4%
54.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
22.6%
40.1%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
7.3%
13.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
953,500
1,095,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
195,430
197,640
Enterprise births
28,104
19,468
Enterprise deaths
22,477
10,888
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.8%
4.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.1%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
3.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.6%
1.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.5%
18.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
52.3%
27.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.2%
8.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
29.8%
16.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.7%
3.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.1%
90.9%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
12,127,565
15,749,028
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
593 /1k
667 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
44,981 kt
19,805 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
8,948
5,835
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
24 km/1000km²
37 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
424
197
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
19
18
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
1,299,752
1,947,248
Population aged 65+
468,755
606,732
Population aged under 15
340,456
409,653
Median age of population
42.9 yrs
45.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
36.1%
31.2%
Crude rate of total population change
5.0 /1k
-2.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.2 /1k
-0.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.7 /1k
7.7 /1k
Crude death rate
9.0 /1k
9.7 /1k
Live births
22,488
22,934
Deaths
18,836
28,670
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
62.3%
52.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.72
1.30
Population density (persons per km²)
443 /km²
2,528 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
2,182,517
2,299,616
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.7%
41.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.8 yrs
82.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.1%
35.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
625 /100k
257 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
851 /100k
1,058 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
202 /100k
238 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.8 /100k
1.1 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
179 /100k
92.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
646 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
3,227 /100k
1,947 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
56 /M
47 /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)
53 m
216 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
54 days/yr
21 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
6 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
7 days/yr
16 days/yr