NUTS-3 BE224 · Belgium
Population
436,0402025
GDP
€22,146M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
885.3 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE224 · DEA42
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Hasselt (Opportunity 73). Runner-up: Gütersloh (66). Contrarian pick: Gütersloh — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 97).
Why you might not pick Arr. Hasselt
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 22) — Gütersloh may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Gütersloh · Manufacturing → Gütersloh · Office → Arr. Hasselt · Residential → Gütersloh.
Phase-2 diligence checklist
- Site-level grid connection capacity and power pricing (beyond country-grain energy data)
- Local incentives, tax regimes and permitting timelines
- Workforce depth for your specific roles (the talent pillar is a proxy)
- Real-estate availability, rents and land — public pan-EU data stops at the Nordics
This is a mandate-neutral read. To weight the pillars to your thesis, run these regions through the Site Screener — it ranks all 1,211 regions under your weights and exports the full PDF. First-pass macro screening, not investment advice.
Composite intelligence · 0–100 EU-percentile scores
Opportunity Indexscale + growth + access + structure
73.1
66.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
64.8
47.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
61.0
59.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
41.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
80.0
70.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
78.3
36.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
52.2
43.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.5% 5y
0.2% 5y
Population
0.7% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.5% 5y
5.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€50,789
€58,968
Population density
493 /km²
377 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€20,045M
€19,605M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€120M
€183M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,085M
€8,149M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,455M
€7,824M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,220M
€1,054M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,863M
€3,921M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,300
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
45,400 PPS
52,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€50,900
€59,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€9,890M
€18,145M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,527M
€5,057M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€19,341M
€52,413M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,821M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€857M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€5,372M
€3,730M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€5,386M
€2,569M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€18,687M
€18,089M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€106,924
€96,422
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€6,038M
€4,109M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
213,600
234,330
Self-employed persons
34,700
15,220
Employment in manufacturing (C)
22,000
78,660
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
73.0%
80.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.6%
6.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.4%
3.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
201,600
202,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
13,713
Enterprise births
—
1,029
Enterprise deaths
—
1,102
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
3.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.9%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.5%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.5%
30.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
49.2%
33.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
14.6%
9.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.6%
21.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.9%
8.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.0%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,202,546
527,440
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
632 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
12,548 kt
14,039 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,603
2,017
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
597
554
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
44 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
31
40
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
5
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
273,829
232,819
Population aged 65+
98,414
77,074
Population aged under 15
63,797
54,089
Median age of population
44.7 yrs
45.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
35.9%
33.1%
Crude rate of total population change
6.4 /1k
0.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.0 /1k
3.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.9 /1k
8.8 /1k
Crude death rate
9.6 /1k
11.4 /1k
Live births
3,453
3,206
Deaths
4,168
4,158
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.2%
56.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.34
1.58
Population density (persons per km²)
—
376 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
403,377
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
10.2%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.4 yrs
81.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
6.7%
16.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
463 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
843 /100k
1,001 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
196 /100k
234 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.5 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
28.4 /100k
31.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
237 /100k
194 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
807 /100k
1,102 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
46 /M
38 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.130/kWh
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.046/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
41 m
71 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
9 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
35 days/yr
47 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr