Catalonia, Madrid and Andalusia feature prominently in the 2024 edition of the European cities and regions of the future ranking by fDi Intelligence, part of the Financial Times Group. The report, which analyses the attractiveness of cities and regions on the continent for foreign direct investment (FDI), also recognises the performance of other Spanish autonomous communities.

The five main indicators considered for the report are economic potential, connectivity, business friendliness, human capital and lifestyle, and profitability. Data provided by European investment promotion agencies have also been considered for the FDI strategy category. Barcelona leads the ranking of very large cities in this category, with Madrid in fourth place, while Bilbao appears in fourth place among large cities.

FDI Strategy
London, Amsterdam and Dublin top the very large cities category once again this year, but Barcelona has managed to snatch the throne in the specific ranking that assesses FDI strategy. The judges highlight the Catalan capital's well-articulated investment promotion work, as well as the growth of its technology cluster and adoption of Industry 4.0.

FDI strategy is also the best performing area for Spanish regions, with Catalonia in fourth place, the Community of Madrid in eighth place and Andalusia in tenth place. The first two also appear in the overall ranking of large European regions, with Catalonia in eighth place and Madrid ninth.

Rankings by category
A total of 330 cities and 141 regions have been analysed by the creators of the report in their search for the most promising investment destinations across Europe. Cities are divided into very large, large, medium, small and micro-cities, while regions are differentiated between large, medium and small.

In the category of large regions, Catalonia ranks sixth for economic potential, eighth for ease of doing business, tenth for human capital and lifestyle, and eighth for profitability. Barcelona, for its part, appears in tenth position among the very large cities in terms of economic potential, as well as human capital and lifestyle.

Economic potential
The Region of Madrid ranks ninth in terms of economic potential and fourth in terms of human capital and lifestyle among the major European regions. Its capital, as a very large city, ranks eighth for economic potential, ninth for connectivity, fifth for ease of doing business and third for human capital and lifestyle.

Also considered among the large regions, Andalusia appears in the connectivity ranking in seventh place, and in fifth place in terms of profitability, two ahead of the Valencian Community. Good connections also make the Canary Islands and the Basque Country stand out among the medium-sized regions, ranking fourth and eighth respectively, with the Balearic Islands being the leader among the small regions.

^{Photos: fDi Intelligence}