NUTS-3 ITF45 · Italy
Population
764,4912025
GDP
€16,848M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
10%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
55.2%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
2,762 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ITF45 · ITG13
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Lecce (Opportunity 44). Runner-up: Messina (42). Contrarian pick: Messina — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 71).
#1Lecce
Strengths
Cost advantage (70) · Growth momentum (54)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
#2Messina
Strengths
Cost advantage (71) · Growth momentum (46)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 13 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Lecce
Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Freight intensity (EU pctl 1) — Messina may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Lecce 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
43.9
41.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
36.0
32.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
29.3
29.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
30.7
38.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
28.7
19.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
12.0
7.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.2
46.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.6% 5y
3.2% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.4% 5y
14.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€22,038
€22,599
Population density
277 /km²
183 /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)
€15,135M
€12,103M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€363M
€391M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,831M
€1,001M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,470M
€752M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,207M
€880M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,572M
€2,963M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€17,200
€16,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
22,700 PPS
23,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€21,900
€22,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€21,133M
€24,161M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,693M
€2,214M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€36,660M
€40,753M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€2,160M
€1,754M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€237M
€127M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€4,257M
€3,171M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,905M
€3,698M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€15,309M
€12,642M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€62,062
€66,612
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,923M
€3,088M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
280,000
205,800
Self-employed persons
78,700
51,600
Employment in manufacturing (C)
30,500
13,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
56.8%
54.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
32.6%
33.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
10.0%
12.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
279,800
209,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
59,163
40,242
Enterprise births
4,782
3,177
Enterprise deaths
3,365
2,237
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.4%
4.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.8%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.6%
2.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
0.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
18.5%
16.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
27.8%
24.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
8.2%
7.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
17.2%
15.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
4.6%
3.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
91.5%
90.9%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
7,496,488
4,726,312
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
649 /1k
733 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
358
1
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,811 kt
4,200 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
47
0
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
16 km/1000km²
28 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
59
66
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)
476,361
374,916
Population aged 65+
202,877
152,867
Population aged under 15
85,253
68,364
Median age of population
50.0 yrs
49.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
42.6%
40.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.6 /1k
-3.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.6 /1k
2.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.9 /1k
6.0 /1k
Crude death rate
12.1 /1k
12.2 /1k
Live births
4,520
3,605
Deaths
9,256
7,288
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.5%
59.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.13
1.10
Population density (persons per km²)
275 /km²
183 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
542,247
379,060
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
35.0%
44.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.5 yrs
82.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
27.6%
38.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
274 /100k
288 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
946 /100k
1,031 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
211 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.5 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
12.5 /100k
15.4 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
796 /100k
558 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
62 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.72
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.60
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.57
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.57
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.41
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.159/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
89 m
372 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
69 days/yr
33 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
2 days/yr
1 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
7 days/yr
8 days/yr