NUTS-3 ITG17 · Italy
Population
1,070,1692025
GDP
€24,495M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
12.2%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
51.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
3,556.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
ITG17 · EL522
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Catania (Opportunity 46). Runner-up: Θεσσαλονίκη (43). Contrarian pick: Θεσσαλονίκη — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 83).
#1Catania
Strengths
Cost advantage (71) · Demographic outlook (66)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (83) · Energy cost (58)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Catania
Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 1) — Θεσσαλονίκη may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Catania · Manufacturing → Θεσσαλονίκη · Office → Θεσσαλονίκη · Residential → Catania.
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
46.4
43.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
42.3
20.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
20.8
22.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
6.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
35.7
33.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
7.0
37.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.8
55.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.7% 5y
3.9% 5y
Population
0.0% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.1% 5y
8.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€22,889
€18,174
Population density
301 /km²
293 /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)
€22,005M
€17,155M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€834M
€349M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,357M
€3,113M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,889M
€2,517M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,429M
€345M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€5,623M
€4,548M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€16,800
€12,400
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
23,700 PPS
22,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€22,800
€18,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€24,161M
€5,199M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,214M
€548M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€40,753M
€11,333M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€3,256M
€2,320M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€510M
€416M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€5,975M
€4,063M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€5,786M
€4,737M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€22,985M
€17,874M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€69,002
€39,572
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,614M
€3,851M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
361,200
540,470
Self-employed persons
89,800
112,440
Employment in manufacturing (C)
28,200
58,040
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
54.1%
70.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
33.8%
23.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
12.1%
11.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
381,300
516,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
68,454
94,881
Enterprise births
6,184
8,770
Enterprise deaths
4,007
4,112
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.8%
4.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.0%
1.5%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.6%
3.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.7%
1.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
16.9%
36.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
24.0%
44.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
7.2%
5.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
15.8%
21.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
3.9%
7.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
90.9%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,245,943
3,801,464
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
733 /1k
474 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
12,616 kt
18,704 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2
2
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
28 km/1000km²
24 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
0
0
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
23
21
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)
683,238
708,030
Population aged 65+
240,101
236,674
Population aged under 15
146,830
137,139
Median age of population
46.3 yrs
46.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
35.1%
33.4%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.5 /1k
-2.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.9 /1k
2.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.6 /1k
6.5 /1k
Crude death rate
10.0 /1k
10.7 /1k
Live births
8,107
7,025
Deaths
10,725
11,551
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.6%
52.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.32
1.12
Population density (persons per km²)
301 /km²
305 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
882,571
759,701
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
44.0%
33.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.6 yrs
81.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
38.4%
24.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
288 /100k
451 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,031 /100k
1,185 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
209 /100k
244 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.3 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
39.9 /100k
32.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
264 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,859 /100k
948 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.72
0.56
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.60
0.42
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.57
0.49
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.57
0.32
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.41
0.24
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.159/kWh
€0.143/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
83 m
70 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
103 days/yr
70 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
1 days/yr
23 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
7 days/yr