Geography and demography
Västra Götaland has 1.5 million inhabitants and 49 cities, towns and municipalities. Göteborg is Sweden’s second largest metropolitan area with more than 800,000 inhabitants. Other larger cities and towns are Borås, Mölndal, Trollhättan, Skövde and Uddevalla. Geographically, Västra Götaland is one of the largest regions in Sweden with an area of 24,000 square kilometers. Port of Göteborg is Scandinavia’s largest port with trans-ocean and intra-European shipping lines. The Göteborg area is the hub of the Nordic transportation system and 50% of Sweden’s import/export goes through the area.

Economy
The region per capita GDP in relation to the European Union (EU-25) average (100) is 133. This is a very dynamic region, where the manufacturing industry has a key role in development. Food processing, paper and cars industries play an important part in the regional GDP. Volvo, Saab (Around 150 suppliers to the automotive industry are located in the Region), SKF and Ericsson have all big plants in the region. Göteborg, one of the main Swedish cities, is a big industrial pole for the whole country. There are many SMEs (30,658 enterprises have 1-9 workers, 8,856 have 10-49 workers, 1,918 have 50-250 workers) , and a good number of big enterprises with more than 250 workers: 139. There are many examples of industrial networks/clusters in the Region covering several fields: Telematics Valley; Microwave Road; Industrial District Skaraborg; Automation Technology Cluster of Westsweden; Kitchen Sphere; Networking Companies.

Labour market
There are 71,2750 employees in the region. The unemployment rate is 6,30% of the active population (the female one is 5,80); the employment rate is 76,30% (male employment rate is 78,40%, while the female one is 74,10%). The percentage of total employment in services sector is 69,80%, while 27,30% works in industry sector, and only 1,50% in agriculture.

Research and development
The Region is prominent in Research and carries out large amounts of research at universities, R&D institutes and large companies. With more than 5% of GNP spent on R&D the Region is Europe´s second most R&D intensive region (2001). Concerning business investments in R&D the Region is the top european region (2001). Universities in the Region: Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg University, IT-university in Göteborg (collaboration between Chalmer and Göteborg University), part of Swedish University of Agricultural Science. University colleges in the Region: University College in Borås, University College in Skövde, University College West in Trollhättan. R&D are also carried out at Sahlgenska University Hospital, at eight industrial research institutes (IVF, IMEGO, IFP Research, IVL, SP, SIK, SIQ and Viktoria) and at several other institutes.