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 · PT195
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Veurne (Opportunity 50). Runner-up: Beira Baixa (32). Contrarian pick: Beira Baixa — 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) · Resilience (84)
Red flags
Connectivity (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) — Beira Baixa may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Arr. Veurne · Manufacturing → Beira Baixa · Office → Arr. Veurne · Residential → Arr. Veurne.
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
31.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
51.0
83.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.0
42.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
64.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
69.7
12.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
82.3
70.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
52.8
57.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.1% 5y
—
Population
0.1% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.8% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€48,701
€21,113
Population density
217 /km²
19 /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
€1,850M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€76M
€119M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€302M
€411M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€279M
€247M
GVA — construction (F)
€194M
€96M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€542M
€321M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€31,200
€14,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
43,200 PPS
25,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€48,500
€21,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€16,710M
€7,092M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,304M
€2,154M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€29,133M
€16,948M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€501M
€188M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€12M
€32M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€926M
€310M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€666M
€464M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,537M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€118,161
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€816M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
26,100
40,020
Self-employed persons
6,200
7,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
2,800
5,260
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.2%
79.0%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.7%
19.0%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.2%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
25,200
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
10,272
Enterprise births
—
1,352
Enterprise deaths
—
1,171
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
5.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
2.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
4.2%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
1.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.7%
33.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
51.3%
46.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.6%
17.9%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.9%
23.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.4%
10.4%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.7%
88.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,206,472
353,716
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
512 /1k
—
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,859 kt
1,125 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
305
11
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
497
11
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
177
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
56,998
Population aged 65+
22,504
33,379
Population aged under 15
6,324
10,356
Median age of population
57.2 yrs
53.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
69.1%
58.6%
Crude rate of total population change
-8.5 /1k
10.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.8 /1k
20.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.7 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude death rate
15.0 /1k
17.2 /1k
Live births
353
656
Deaths
927
1,774
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
88.5%
76.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.43
1.42
Population density (persons per km²)
223 /km²
19 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
45,567
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
9.8%
19.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.1 yrs
83.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
5.6%
17.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
634 /100k
332 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
849 /100k
—
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.6 /100k
1.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
19.4 /100k
24.0 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
228 /100k
165 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,223 /100k
513 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
43 /M
80 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
—
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
344 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
71 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
25 days/yr
4 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
9 days/yr