NUTS-3 BE225 · Belgium
Population
261,7612025
GDP
€9,671M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
912.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE225 · DE716
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Maaseik (Opportunity 68). Runner-up: Darmstadt-Dieburg (64).
Strengths
Connectivity (70) · Resilience (65)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Arr. Maaseik
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 22) — Darmstadt-Dieburg may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Arr. Maaseik leads under all four archetype mandates — the recommendation is weight-stable.
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
67.5
64.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
76.5
64.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.3
62.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
55.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
82.7
70.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
78.3
62.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.6
47.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.4% 5y
1.1% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.6% 5y
1.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€36,948
€33,576
Population density
287 /km²
463 /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)
€8,754M
€9,263M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€176M
€77M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,629M
€1,693M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,484M
€1,523M
GVA — construction (F)
€879M
€638M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,770M
€2,561M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,300
€30,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
33,000 PPS
30,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€37,000
€33,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€9,890M
€49,287M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,527M
€7,586M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€19,341M
€137,102M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,076M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€91M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,440M
€2,647M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,860M
€1,646M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€8,161M
€9,028M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€104,114
€95,338
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,637M
€1,974M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
95,800
113,200
Self-employed persons
20,400
11,880
Employment in manufacturing (C)
15,900
18,250
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
73.0%
78.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.6%
6.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.3%
3.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
120,500
154,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
11,275
Enterprise births
—
1,015
Enterprise deaths
—
1,102
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
3.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.9%
3.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.5%
7.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
2.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.5%
37.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
49.2%
43.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
14.6%
10.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.6%
26.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.9%
9.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.0%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,251,389
506,968
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
612 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
7,346 kt
7,317 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,724
1,120
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
659
371
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
30
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
5
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
163,594
190,795
Population aged 65+
59,301
67,534
Population aged under 15
38,866
43,692
Median age of population
45.2 yrs
46.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
36.2%
35.4%
Crude rate of total population change
5.1 /1k
-0.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.3 /1k
2.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.4 /1k
7.8 /1k
Crude death rate
8.6 /1k
10.8 /1k
Live births
2,200
2,357
Deaths
2,258
3,260
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.0%
58.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.48
1.42
Population density (persons per km²)
—
459 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
292,433
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
10.2%
21.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.4 yrs
82.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
6.7%
16.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
463 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
843 /100k
974 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
196 /100k
229 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.5 /100k
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
33.0 /100k
16.2 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
208 /100k
152 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
595 /100k
553 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
46 /M
27 /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)
47 m
161 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
11 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
37 days/yr
52 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr