NUTS-3 IE052 · Ireland
Population
485,1952025
GDP
€21,590M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.2%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
7,205.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
IE052 · MT001
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: South-East (Opportunity 65). Runner-up: Malta (61). Contrarian pick: Malta — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Demographic outlook (90) · Governance (90)
Red flags
Energy cost (EU bottom 15%)
#2Malta
Strengths
Demographic outlook (97) · Growth momentum (93)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick South-East
Energy cost (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Energy cost (EU pctl 1) — Malta may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
South-East 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
64.8
61.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
46.0
53.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.0
55.6
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
29.3
36.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
84.0
66.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
72.0
93.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.1% 5y
7.3% 5y
Population
1.8% 5y
2.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.1% 5y
8.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€44,497
€41,468
Population density
67 /km²
2,209 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 88 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€20,557M
€20,480M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€1,033M
€100M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€5,115M
€1,577M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€4,837M
€1,272M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,127M
€722M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,606M
€6,352M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,700
€21,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
38,300 PPS
45,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€45,300
€41,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€43,613M
€4,280M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€27,811M
€228M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€41,142M
€9,681M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,462M
€1,670M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€576M
€2,623M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€5,716M
€6,926M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,960M
€4,803M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€20,805M
€19,527M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€109,517
€73,251
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,616M
€4,184M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
219,330
308,430
Self-employed persons
37,170
41,350
Employment in manufacturing (C)
26,790
23,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
78.0%
82.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.8%
9.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.2%
3.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
258,000
317,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
29,874
52,349
Enterprise births
3,157
8,968
Enterprise deaths
3,995
3,384
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.1%
6.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.6%
0.5%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
9.1%
5.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.0%
0.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
54.8%
37.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
63.4%
47.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
12.9%
19.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
29.7%
22.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
12.0%
9.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.6%
97.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,462,487
10,982,334
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
483 /1k
576 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
16,494 kt
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Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,069
1
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
220
0
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
13 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
117
9
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
313,366
371,952
Population aged 65+
81,771
96,499
Population aged under 15
90,058
64,546
Median age of population
40.4 yrs
39.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
26.1%
25.9%
Crude rate of total population change
25.3 /1k
19.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
22.8 /1k
19.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.6 /1k
7.7 /1k
Crude death rate
7.1 /1k
7.3 /1k
Live births
4,611
4,055
Deaths
3,422
3,839
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
54.8%
43.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.60
1.01
Population density (persons per km²)
67 /km²
2,154 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
591,202
668,272
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
18.2%
19.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.7 yrs
83.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.7%
16.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
269 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
936 /100k
904 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
247 /100k
193 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.5 /100k
1.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
12.7 /100k
46.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
156 /100k
132 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
947 /100k
785 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
32 /M
21 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.71
0.91
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
0.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.50
0.85
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.65
0.45
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.81
0.93
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.212/kWh
€0.116/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.057/kWh
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Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
89 m
92 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
33 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
17 days/yr
0 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
3 days/yr