The healthiest entrepreneurship ecosystems are those capable of generating connections among diverse actors, adapting to changing contexts, and building collaborative dynamics that transcend economic activity. This is one of the main conclusions of the second edition of the Impact Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Index, developed by Impact Hub Madrid and Impact Hub Donostia, a diagnostic and strategic guidance tool that analyzes the 50 Spanish provinces through more than 120 indicators grouped into three dimensions: ecological health, social health, and economic-entrepreneurial health.
The Impact Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Index offers a new way to read Spanish territories: not through competitiveness, but through ecological, social, and economic health. A tool for those who need to make decisions that matter.
We are at a moment when crises do not arrive one by one. The climate emergency, demographic transformation, biodiversity loss, and rising inequality overlap and reinforce one another. In the face of that complexity, the usual analytical tools—almost always focused on economic competitiveness and business creation—fall short.
A Different View: Health, Not a Ranking
This index is not a competition between territories, nor a definitive ranking of who does it better or worse. It is a diagnosis of systemic health: the ability of a territory to generate its own vitality, sustain itself over time, and evolve toward more complex and cohesive ways of creating value.
The researchers responsible for the study note an honest limitation: many of the most important transformation processes in an ecosystem are not yet visible in the available statistical data. Real changes in an ecosystem take four to five years to show up in indicators. A territory can be in full transition—new networks, new governance structures, new forms of collaboration—without those changes yet appearing in official statistics.
«The index aims not only to measure or compare, but to offer a broader view of the conditions that enable ecosystems to generate well-being, resilience, and the capacity to transform. Precisely, entrepreneurship has been a driver of innovation over the last two decades, and now it must take a qualitative leap: from innovating in the system to innovating the system», explains Alberto Alonso, director of Impact Hub Madrid.
What It Measures and How It Works
The model rests on a premise: an entrepreneurship ecosystem functions as a living system where the economic, social, and ecological are nested together, not separated. The entrepreneurial health of a territory depends as much on its natural base as on the social and cultural fabric that sustains it.
To operationalize this, the index assesses three key capacities in each province:
- Vitality: the capacity to generate and sustain its own energy, act autonomously, and preserve essential cycles (water, soils, biodiversity, well-being).
- Viability: reflects the ability to stay alive over time by interacting with larger systems from its vocation and specialization.
- Evolution: the potential to move toward more complex forms, achieve greater cohesion, and generate collective learning.
These three objectives are fueled by eight value flows that the index analyzes in each territory: care of natural resources, habitat diversity, energy sources and circularity, well-being and caregiving, infrastructure and connectivity, culture, knowledge and transfer, and governance and financing.
What the Results Reveal
The top ten provinces in the global index are Madrid, Navarra, Girona, Huesca, La Rioja, Gipuzkoa, Biscay, Teruel, Lleida, and Álava. But more than the order, the analysis highlights the common patterns among the healthiest territories: greater connectivity among actors, more collaborative governance, and better integration across the three dimensions of the model.
A particularly notable finding is that economic size does not determine ecosystem health. Navarra, for example, ranks first in both ecological health and economic health. La Rioja ranks second in social health, with an economy positioned at 18th. Mid-sized provinces like Huesca or Teruel outperform much larger provincial capitals with greater activity.
«The results show that the strength of an ecosystem does not depend solely on economic indicators. The quality of relationships, the diversity of actors, and the capacity for collaboration are essential elements for addressing the current and future challenges of each territory», says Nerea González, head of Projects and Eco-innovation at Impact Hub Donostia.
The southern provinces of Spain and the archipelagos show the greatest room for improvement, especially in the ecological health and governance dimensions.
What It Is Used For, Specifically
The index is designed as a working instrument for decision-makers who need to understand their territory before acting. Public agencies crafting policies for ecological and social transition; companies pursuing more sustainable value models; universities and knowledge centers supporting change processes; social organizations working on the ground.
«When we look at territories from this perspective, new opportunities arise to design policies, investments, and strategies that strengthen their capacity for long-term evolution and regeneration,» adds Rafa Cobo, Regenerative Lead at Impact Hub.
The aim is not for one territory to compete with another, but for each to understand its strengths, identify its imbalances, and activate transformation processes that fit its uniqueness.
The launch of the II Impact Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Index featured Yolanda Alcalá, Deputy Director General of Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, who noted that “this index is a very ambitious and timely tool that invites us to think about transformation—a process that cannot be carried out individually but collectively and from the territory.”
