NUTS-3 EL431 · Greece
Ηράκλειο
Irakleio
Export region data (CSV)Ηράκλειο generates €5.5bn of GDP across 301.6k residents. Its Opportunity Index of 32/100 sits in the lower tier of EU regions, led by economic growth and economic scale. Its economy has grown +4.8%/yr over five years and accelerating, with the employment rate up 13.5pp. On quality of life it ranks strongest for health (64th EU percentile) and weakest for digital connectivity (1th).
Opportunity Index · composite triage (experimental)
32
/ 100 · blends growth, livability, market access & scale · 4/4 pillars
Growth60.2
Livability31.9
Market access2
Economic scale34
Equal-weighted mean of four EU-percentile pillars (deliberately orthogonal: growth=trend, livability=quality, market=distance-weighted demand proxy, scale=absolute GDP). Experimental — a screening triage, not investment advice.
Resilience Index · downside / risk lens (experimental)
15.5
/ 100 · higher = more resilient to downturns · 4/4 pillars
GDP stability9
Labour stability4
Diversification24
Demographic stability25
Inverse of GDP-growth & unemployment volatility (since 2008, incl. 2009/2020 shocks), economic diversification (inverse HHI) and population stability — each EU-percentile-ranked. Higher withstands downturns better. Experimental.
Connectivity Index · transit · air · market access (experimental)
29.7
/ 100 · higher = better-connected · 3/3 facets
Transit density1
Airport access86
Market access2
Public-transport stop density, proximity to a major airport, and gravity access to surrounding economic mass — each EU-percentile-ranked. Higher = better-connected. Experimental.
Talent & Human Capital Index · skills base (experimental)
17.8
/ 100 · higher = deeper skills base than more EU regions · 4/4 facets
Young tertiary37
Lifelong learning1
Knowledge workers14
Scientists & engineers19
Young tertiary attainment (25–34), adult lifelong learning, knowledge-worker share and scientists & engineers — each EU-percentile-ranked. Higher = deeper talent pool. Experimental.
Clean-Air Score · air-quality livability (experimental)
22
/ 100 · higher = cleaner air than more EU regions · 3/3 pollutants
PM2.511.7 µg/m³
PM1027.2 µg/m³
NO213.3 µg/m³
PM2.5, PM10 & NO2 annual means from official monitoring networks, inverted (lower pollution = higher) and EU-percentile-ranked. Higher = cleaner air; ground-level ozone is shown separately. Experimental.
Quality of Life · composite (experimental)
31.9
/ 100 · EU-relative · 7/7 pillars
Economy15.5
Jobs32.5
Education38.5
Health64
Safety49.7
Connectivity1
Environment22
Equal-weighted percentile across 6 pillars vs all EU NUTS-3; lower-is-better indicators (crime, unemployment, mortality) inverted. Experimental — regional screening only.
Growth momentum · trend analytics
60.2
/ 100 momentum · EU-relative · 5/5 signals
GDP growth · 5-yr
+4.8%
CAGR, nominal
GDP growth · 10-yr
+2.8%
CAGR, nominal
Acceleration
+2.0 pp
5-yr vs 10-yr
vs country avg
+0.7 pp
inflation-adj.
Population · 5-yr
-0.4%
CAGR
Employment rate
+13.5 pp
5-yr change
Unemployment
-12.2 pp
5-yr change
Compound annual growth to the latest available year vs all EU NUTS-3; GDP is nominal EUR (“vs country avg” removes most national inflation). Screening signal, not a forecast.
Economic structure · gross value added by sector
Dominant: Trade · transport · ICT · 35.9%Diversified · HHI 2443
Agriculture 6.2%Industry 10.4%Construction 2.9%Trade · transport · ICT 35.9%Finance · real estate · prof. 23.8%Public · health · education 20.9%
Share of total GVA (latest year). HHI = sum of squared sector shares ×10,000; higher means a more concentrated, single-sector-dependent economy (more cyclicality risk).
All indicators · 71 more metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€4,762M
2023 · EU pctl 33
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€298M
2023 · EU pctl 74
GVA — industry (B–E)
€495M
2023 · EU pctl 13
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€360M
2023 · EU pctl 15
GVA — construction (F)
€136M
2023 · EU pctl 12
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,709M
2023 · EU pctl 57
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source)
€12,800
2023 · EU pctl 19 · NUTS-2 src
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
21,600 PPS
2023 · EU pctl 12
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€17,500
2023 · EU pctl 15
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy)
€2,427M
2023 · EU pctl 5 · NUTS-2 src
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C)
€104M
2023 · EU pctl 3 · NUTS-2 src
Compensation of employees (total wage bill)
€4,111M
2023 · EU pctl 5 · NUTS-2 src
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€533M
2023 · EU pctl 33
GVA — information & communication (J)
€96M
2023 · EU pctl 41
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,132M
2023 · EU pctl 40
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€993M
2023 · EU pctl 32
Labour market
Employment, total persons
162,650
2023 · EU pctl 66
Self-employed persons
50,970
2023 · EU pctl 87
Employment in manufacturing (C)
9,820
2023 · EU pctl 28
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source)
72.0%
2025 · EU pctl 17 · NUTS-2 src
Youth unemployment rate (15–24)
12.9%
2025 · EU pctl 44 · NUTS-2 src
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
28,597
2023 · EU pctl 71
Enterprise births
2,429
2023 · EU pctl 68
Enterprise deaths
820
2023 · EU pctl 44
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.0%
2023 · EU pctl 41
Innovation & R&D
EPO patent applications
6
2012 · EU pctl 28
EPO patent applications per million inhabitants
18 /M pop
2012 · EU pctl 26
R&D expenditure as % of GDP
1.7%
2023 · EU pctl 54 · NUTS-2 src
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total)
2.8%
2025 · EU pctl 15 · NUTS-2 src
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64
28.5%
2025 · EU pctl 23 · NUTS-2 src
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool)
36.5%
2025 · EU pctl 37 · NUTS-2 src
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks)
3.1%
2025 · EU pctl 1 · NUTS-2 src
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force)
17.7%
2025 · EU pctl 14 · NUTS-2 src
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force)
6.4%
2025 · EU pctl 19 · NUTS-2 src
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
14,052,273
2024 · EU pctl 97
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants
500 /1k pop
2024 · EU pctl 21 · NUTS-2 src
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1
CURRENT · EU pctl 0
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
0
CURRENT · EU pctl 1
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
21
CURRENT · EU pctl 14
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
CURRENT · EU pctl 50
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
192,761
2025 · EU pctl 59
Population aged 65+
62,763
2025 · EU pctl 53
Population aged under 15
46,074
2025 · EU pctl 63
Median age of population
44.7 yrs
2025 · EU pctl 34
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.6%
2025 · EU pctl 25
Crude rate of total population change
-3.0 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 24
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-0.9 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 10
Crude birth rate
8.4 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 67
Crude death rate
10.5 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 30
Live births
2,544
2024 · EU pctl 64
Deaths
3,180
2024 · EU pctl 53
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.5%
2025 · EU pctl 30
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.50
2024 · EU pctl 71
Population density (persons per km²)
115 /km²
2024 · EU pctl 46
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE)
18.2%
2025 · EU pctl 39 · NUTS-2 src
Life expectancy at birth
82.4 yrs
2024 · EU pctl 65 · NUTS-2 src
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants
395 /100k
2023 · EU pctl 41 · NUTS-2 src
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate)
966 /100k
2021 · EU pctl 37 · NUTS-2 src
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate)
213 /100k
2023 · EU pctl 28 · NUTS-2 src
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 49
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
3.0 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 4
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
39.3 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 5
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
222 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 14
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants
71 /M pop
2022 · EU pctl 88 · NUTS-2 src
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
476 m
CURRENT · EU pctl 80
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
47 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 91
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 6
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 51
Environment
PM10 (coarse particulate matter) annual mean concentration — mean across EEA air-quality monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
27
2024 · EU pctl 97
NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) annual mean concentration — a traffic / combustion pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
13
2024 · EU pctl 55
O3 (ground-level ozone) annual mean concentration — a summer-smog pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data).
83
2024 · EU pctl 99
Similar regions · nearest peers on standardised NUTS-3 indicators
Other Greece regions