NUTS-3 DE124 · Germany
Population
230,7372025
GDP
€11,730M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
82.6%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
736.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE124 · DEA43
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Rastatt (Opportunity 64). Runner-up: Herford (58).
#2Herford
Strengths
Industrial base (88) · Labour market (72)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 17 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Rastatt
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 19) — Herford may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Rastatt 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
63.6
58.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
35.8
60.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
70.5
60.9
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
75.7
66.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
68.3
36.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
31.0
35.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.9% 5y
0.7% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.5% 5y
0.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€50,836
€39,918
Population density
313 /km²
567 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 81 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€10,714M
€9,276M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€44M
€45M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€5,418M
€3,045M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,079M
€2,780M
GVA — construction (F)
€446M
€477M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,438M
€1,857M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€29,100
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
45,200 PPS
35,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€50,800
€39,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€31,701M
€18,145M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€6,099M
€5,057M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€83,032M
€52,413M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,024M
€1,893M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,345M
€1,959M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€10,174M
€8,558M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€106,824
€84,285
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,457M
€1,944M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
116,430
126,830
Self-employed persons
8,880
10,760
Employment in manufacturing (C)
41,100
34,890
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
81.4%
80.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
5.7%
6.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.4%
3.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
116,200
138,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
7,675
9,396
Enterprise births
692
751
Enterprise deaths
701
812
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.3%
3.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
5.9%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
9.1%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
3.5%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
40.0%
30.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
45.6%
33.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.3%
9.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.5%
21.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
13.0%
8.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
587,080
225,658
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
597 /1k
632 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,015
1,890
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
11,169 kt
6,194 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
440
743
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
20
61
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
144,150
158,825
Population aged 65+
54,196
59,291
Population aged under 15
32,391
36,288
Median age of population
47.0 yrs
46.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
37.6%
37.3%
Crude rate of total population change
-2.7 /1k
-0.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.5 /1k
3.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.2 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude death rate
11.4 /1k
12.4 /1k
Live births
1,889
2,025
Deaths
2,627
3,168
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.1%
60.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.49
1.48
Population density (persons per km²)
320 /km²
566 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
226,659
244,535
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.5%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.2 yrs
81.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.9%
16.9%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
980 /100k
1,001 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
216 /100k
234 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.4 /100k
0.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
29.0 /100k
40.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
170 /100k
203 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
970 /100k
1,100 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
26 /M
38 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.53
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.161/kWh
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.055/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
218 m
97 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
13 days/yr
7 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
40 days/yr
48 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
2 days/yr