Due to its strong industrialization, Catalonia is one of the most important economic drivers of southern Europe. Barcelona is considered as the 5th most attractive investment location in Europe. (EY European Attractiveness Survey 2016).
Catalonia in numbers
- Surface: 32,108km2
- Population: 7.5 million (2016)
- GDP: € 223.6 billion (2016)
- GDP per capita: € 29,966 / year (2016)
- Export: 65.1 billion € / year (2016)
- Import: € 77.8 billion (2016)
- Visitors per year: 18 million (2016)
Economic indicators
- Companies: 596,196 (2016)
- Industrial companies: 35,698 (2016)
- Innovation companies: 9,449 (2015)
- Companies with regular exports: 16,929 (2016)
- Foreign companies: 7,086 (2016)
- Foreign investments: 4,857 million (2016)
- Catalan companies abroad: 9,256 (2016)
Facts Facts Facts
- Barcelona is number 1 among the world’s creative cities. (BCD, 2016)
- Barcelona ranks 2nd after Singapore in the Smart City World Ranking. (Juniper Research, 2016)
- Catalonia is the third most important Western European location for foreign direct investment in R&D. (fDi Markets, 2011-2016)
- In a European comparison, Barcelona ranks fourth in terms of knowledge production. BarcelonaTech (UPC)
- Barcelona is number 5 among the European start-up regions. EU start-ups
