NUTS-3 BE231 · Belgium
Population
307,8732025
GDP
€10,350M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.2%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
78.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
474.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE231 · PL923
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Aalst (Opportunity 67). Runner-up: Płocki (49). Contrarian pick: Płocki — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 99).
Strengths
Talent & skills (91) · Connectivity (71)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
#2Płocki
Strengths
Industrial base (99) · Freight intensity (86)
Red flags
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Resilience (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Arr. Aalst
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 6) — Płocki may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Płocki · Manufacturing → Płocki · Office → Arr. Aalst · Residential → Arr. Aalst.
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
67.2
48.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
71.0
9.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.3
36.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
24.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
71.3
29.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
90.8
16.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
50.4
67.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.7% 5y
5.6% 5y
Population
0.9% 5y
1.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.7% 5y
3.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€33,617
€32,328
Population density
648 /km²
90 /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)
€9,368M
€8,812M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€42M
€459M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,288M
€4,849M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,103M
€4,621M
GVA — construction (F)
€915M
€655M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,717M
€1,350M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€30,800
€12,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
30,100 PPS
46,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€33,800
€31,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€20,203M
€8,741M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,558M
€3,241M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€37,875M
€12,664M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,358M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€248M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,961M
€641M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,445M
€858M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€8,749M
€8,215M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€111,762
€90,882
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,815M
€2,448M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
95,500
132,300
Self-employed persons
22,300
30,500
Employment in manufacturing (C)
9,200
26,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.7%
75.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
16.6%
14.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.1%
4.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
151,900
147,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
17,449
Enterprise births
—
1,961
Enterprise deaths
—
2,588
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
5.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
3.4%
0.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.7%
1.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.7%
0.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
48.8%
31.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
56.4%
36.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
20.5%
4.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
35.9%
17.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.9%
5.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.7%
97.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
240,497
175,802
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
475 /1k
665 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,236 kt
15,199 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,379
19
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
448
6
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
66 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
40
63
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
193,125
194,343
Population aged 65+
65,741
64,761
Population aged under 15
49,007
42,578
Median age of population
43.9 yrs
44.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.0%
33.3%
Crude rate of total population change
8.7 /1k
-8.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
9.8 /1k
-2.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.0 /1k
6.7 /1k
Crude death rate
10.1 /1k
12.5 /1k
Live births
2,749
2,026
Deaths
3,086
3,786
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.4%
55.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.52
1.19
Population density (persons per km²)
648 /km²
92 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
293,209
185,059
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
12.1%
16.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.0 yrs
77.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
6.1%
15.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
566 /100k
413 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
867 /100k
1,650 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
222 /100k
274 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.0 /100k
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
44.6 /100k
9.2 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
226 /100k
116 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
930 /100k
153 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
38 /M
92 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
0.52
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
0.69
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
0.35
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
0.67
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
0.54
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.130/kWh
€0.113/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.046/kWh
€0.064/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
63 m
127 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
34 days/yr
85 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr