NUTS-3 NO072 · Norway
Population
170,4792025
GDP
—
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.5%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
25,961.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NO072 · NO085
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Buskerud (Opportunity 43). Runner-up: Troms/Romsa/Tromssa (37). Contrarian pick: Troms/Romsa/Tromssa — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 93).
Why you might not pick Buskerud
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 21) — Troms/Romsa/Tromssa may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Troms/Romsa/Tromssa · Manufacturing → Buskerud · Office → Troms/Romsa/Tromssa · Residential → Troms/Romsa/Tromssa.
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
37.2
42.7
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
70.9
69.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
59.3
40.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
42.3
40.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
72.8
95.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
40.7
45.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Population
0.2% 5y
1.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
—
—
Population density
7 /km²
18 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 57 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,600
€28,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€7,085M
€27,753M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€357M
€831M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€12,839M
€65,746M
Labour market
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.2%
81.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
—
15.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.9%
2.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.2%
7.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.3%
2.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
43.7%
56.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
46.8%
63.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
20.3%
21.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
26.1%
37.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.7%
13.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.8%
99.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,029,094
1,995,970
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
538 /1k
494 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
11,656 kt
19,417 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
5,937
4,547
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
0 km/1000km²
12 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
3,483
1,676
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
79
118
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
110,706
173,889
Population aged 65+
34,599
54,948
Population aged under 15
25,174
42,411
Median age of population
41.5 yrs
42.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.3%
31.6%
Crude rate of total population change
5.1 /1k
5.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.9 /1k
5.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.0 /1k
8.7 /1k
Crude death rate
8.8 /1k
9.2 /1k
Live births
1,532
2,349
Deaths
1,499
2,480
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
54.0%
56.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.34
1.44
Population density (persons per km²)
7 /km²
—
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
213,727
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.2%
15.3%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.6 yrs
83.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
15.3%
10.8%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
414 /100k
324 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
866 /100k
823 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
216 /100k
206 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
1.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
11.8 /100k
18.5 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,236 /100k
1,877 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
33 /M
15 /M
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.064/kWh
€0.064/kWh
Housing market
Dwelling price per m² (NOK, all types, Statistics Norway)
48,646 NOK/m²
40,362 NOK/m²
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
807 m
649 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
0 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
251 days/yr
190 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
9 days/yr