Key strengths of France’s regions
The diversity of France’s regions, coupled with their high-quality infrastructure and workforces, are powerful drivers of their attractiveness to investors. Amid the competition in Europe to attract foreign investment, the thriving economies of France’s regions and cities are often a decisive factor.
France, a regional economy
43% of investments
were made in towns with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants
(Foreign investment in France, 2022)
74% of industrial investments
were located in towns with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants
(Foreign investment in France, 2022)
Destination Paris 2nd
the most attractive in the world after New York
(KPMG,2021)
The FDI map in each region
Paris: one of the world’s most appreciated cities
Paris #1 world city for investments in the next three years, ahead of Shanghai, London and New York.
The world’s #1 city for investment in R&D.
Investment decisions confirmed in 2021 have created jobs in all French regions, not only in major cities but also in more remote parts of the country. They are home to sophisticated ecosystems, able to support technological and R&D projects.
By project numbers, Ile de France (Paris region), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie, Hauts de France, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Grand Est together attracted three-quarters of all investment decisions.
The economic attractiveness of urban areas can also be explained by a combination of various factors: human capital, connectivity, mobility, training and care, and quality of life. Ultimately, the regions with the highest results are those which have created the necessary conditions to welcome new people and thus foster business development. The attractiveness of the Ile de France/Paris region and France’s other major cities are not to the detriment of other French regions.
When expressed as a share of national GDP, the Occitanie, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Hauts de France and Grand Est regions welcomed a much higher number of foreign investment projects than their economic size (proportion of national GDP) would suggest. Regions like Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Centre-Val de Loire have an attractiveness corresponding to their economic size.
