NUTS-3 BE258 · Belgium
Population
61,3922025
GDP
€2,990M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.2%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
282.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE258 · PT11B
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Veurne (Opportunity 50). Runner-up: Alto Tâmega e Barroso (31). Contrarian pick: Alto Tâmega e Barroso — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 90).
Strengths
Talent & skills (82) · Economic base (80)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Energy cost (90) · Cost advantage (80)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Arr. Veurne
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 4) — Alto Tâmega e Barroso may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Arr. Veurne 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
49.7
31.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
51.0
46.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.0
37.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
64.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
69.7
17.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
82.3
63.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
52.8
60.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.1% 5y
3.1% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.8% 5y
1.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€48,701
€18,325
Population density
217 /km²
29 /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)
€2,706M
€1,330M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€76M
€62M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€302M
€253M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€279M
€113M
GVA — construction (F)
€194M
€87M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€542M
€240M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€31,200
€13,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
43,200 PPS
22,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€48,500
€18,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€16,710M
€16,004M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,304M
€3,831M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€29,133M
€39,066M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€501M
€161M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€12M
€4M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€926M
€259M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€666M
€323M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,537M
€1,300M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€118,161
€47,867
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€816M
€327M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
26,100
32,960
Self-employed persons
6,200
10,600
Employment in manufacturing (C)
2,800
2,630
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.2%
77.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.7%
18.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.2%
6.2%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
25,200
37,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
8,799
Enterprise births
—
1,105
Enterprise deaths
—
1,013
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
5.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
2.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.7%
29.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
51.3%
41.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.6%
15.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.9%
23.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.4%
10.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.7%
88.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,206,472
427,056
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
512 /1k
—
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
305
6
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,859 kt
512 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
497
7
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
59 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
24
100
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
32,564
45,569
Population aged 65+
22,504
30,580
Population aged under 15
6,324
7,296
Median age of population
57.2 yrs
56.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
69.1%
67.1%
Crude rate of total population change
-8.5 /1k
4.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.8 /1k
16.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.7 /1k
4.8 /1k
Crude death rate
15.0 /1k
17.0 /1k
Live births
353
402
Deaths
927
1,415
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
88.5%
83.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.43
1.13
Population density (persons per km²)
223 /km²
29 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
45,567
48,153
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
9.8%
18.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.1 yrs
83.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
5.6%
15.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
634 /100k
327 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
849 /100k
914 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
207 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.6 /100k
2.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
19.4 /100k
41.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
228 /100k
173 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,223 /100k
441 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
43 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
1.02
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
0.81
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
1.13
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
0.79
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
0.89
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.130/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.046/kWh
€0.045/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
0 m
426 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
38 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
25 days/yr
15 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
11 days/yr