NUTS-3 IE042 · Ireland
Population
516,9852025
GDP
€30,592M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
14,228.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
IE042 · NL115
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Overig Groningen (Opportunity 68). Runner-up: West (68). Contrarian pick: West — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 96).
Strengths
Digital readiness (96) · Talent & skills (92)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Overig Groningen
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 9) — West may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Overig Groningen · Manufacturing → West · Office → Overig Groningen · Residential → West.
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
67.5
68.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
31.0
47.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
57.8
61.8
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
57.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
49.7
66.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
81.5
91.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
86.0
62.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
6.7% 5y
—
Population
1.9% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.8% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€59,174
€60,898
Population density
36 /km²
308 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€29,129M
€22,891M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€380M
€468M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€12,088M
€5,551M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€11,219M
€1,351M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,193M
€899M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€5,822M
€3,906M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,200
€24,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
50,700 PPS
52,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€59,900
€60,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€7,935M
€6,193M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,209M
€504M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€18,607M
€14,058M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,757M
€1,420M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€1,486M
€1,280M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€4,736M
€4,494M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€4,911M
€7,155M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€28,890M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€136,135
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,875M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
250,020
242,200
Self-employed persons
43,120
36,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
38,250
12,100
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.5%
83.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
13.4%
9.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.7%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
276,300
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
35,534
45,807
Enterprise births
3,755
4,387
Enterprise deaths
4,709
2,167
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.8%
7.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.4%
—
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.3%
4.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.5%
—
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
53.2%
45.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
61.2%
60.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
13.0%
26.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.7%
31.2%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.9%
11.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
92.8%
99.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
5,692,982
1,327,387
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
458 /1k
507 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
11,040 kt
12,285 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,300
1,445
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
5 km/1000km²
46 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
252
345
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
29
15
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)
334,052
284,389
Population aged 65+
90,182
80,195
Population aged under 15
92,751
54,263
Median age of population
40.6 yrs
38.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
27.0%
28.2%
Crude rate of total population change
25.6 /1k
1.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
22.7 /1k
2.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.8 /1k
8.1 /1k
Crude death rate
6.9 /1k
9.3 /1k
Live births
4,987
3,380
Deaths
3,498
3,880
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
54.8%
47.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.55
1.18
Population density (persons per km²)
37 /km²
326 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
586,284
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.7%
22.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.2 yrs
80.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
20.9%
18.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
276 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
885 /100k
1,078 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
239 /100k
264 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.2 /100k
—
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
5.6 /100k
—
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
108 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
634 /100k
—
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
58 /M
40 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.71
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.50
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.65
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.81
—
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.212/kWh
€0.142/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.057/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
62 m
-1 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
2 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
16 days/yr
33 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
2 days/yr