NUTS-3 FRL05 · France
Population
1,139,0502025
GDP
€38,170M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
74.4%2025
Active firms
339,0192026
Cadastral parcels
934,8152026
Area
6,034.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
FRL05 · ES120
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Var (Opportunity 59). Runner-up: Asturias (54). Contrarian pick: Asturias — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 95).
#2Asturias
Strengths
Energy cost (95) · Freight intensity (72)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Var
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 8) — Asturias may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Asturias · Manufacturing → Asturias · Office → Var · Residential → Var.
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
58.7
53.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
61.5
37.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
48.0
47.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
42.7
39.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
38.3
37.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
75.8
67.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
56.8
59.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.8% 5y
3.5% 5y
Population
1.0% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.8% 5y
9.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€33,510
€27,928
Population density
189 /km²
96 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
821
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
298
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€34,049M
€25,837M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€228M
€389M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,540M
€5,576M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,920M
€3,782M
GVA — construction (F)
€2,210M
€1,708M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€6,634M
€6,101M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,900
€19,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
31,300 PPS
31,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€33,900
€28,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€49,335M
€5,061M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,075M
€1,031M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€105,791M
€13,729M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€9,511M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€459M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€12,887M
€6,373M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€9,551M
€5,689M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€34,094M
€25,425M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€88,532
€74,485
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€8,781M
€5,740M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
439,400
406,900
Self-employed persons
76,100
68,300
Employment in manufacturing (C)
24,800
46,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
73.4%
73.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
22.6%
27.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
7.3%
8.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
478,300
475,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
115,476
68,999
Enterprise births
15,623
5,127
Enterprise deaths
12,696
5,046
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.2%
3.7%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.1%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
3.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.6%
1.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.5%
46.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
52.3%
55.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.2%
15.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
29.8%
25.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.7%
7.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.1%
95.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
17,776,246
6,689,670
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
593 /1k
546 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
19,267 kt
39,693 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
4,763
202
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
24 km/1000km²
43 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
418
20
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
82
36
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)
651,961
627,732
Population aged 65+
320,445
287,903
Population aged under 15
166,644
99,493
Median age of population
48.6 yrs
51.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
49.2%
45.9%
Crude rate of total population change
8.7 /1k
5.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
11.6 /1k
13.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.3 /1k
4.5 /1k
Crude death rate
11.2 /1k
12.9 /1k
Live births
9,435
4,535
Deaths
12,730
13,109
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
74.7%
61.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.63
0.94
Population density (persons per km²)
189 /km²
96 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
1,135,569
576,453
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.7%
22.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.8 yrs
83.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.1%
17.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
625 /100k
355 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
851 /100k
848 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
202 /100k
224 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.0 /100k
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
56.1 /100k
34.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
456 /100k
164 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,888 /100k
174 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
56 /M
43 /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)
237 m
503 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
66 days/yr
2 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
13 days/yr
22 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
14 days/yr