NUTS-3 DE132 · Germany
Population
272,5582025
GDP
€9,579M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
83.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,377.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE132 · DEA43
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (Opportunity 65). Runner-up: Herford (58). Contrarian pick: Herford — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 88).
#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 Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 19) — Herford may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald 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
64.6
58.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
80.0
60.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
75.4
60.9
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
95.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
69.3
66.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
55.3
36.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
40.8
35.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.7% 5y
0.7% 5y
Population
0.7% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.1% 5y
0.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€35,144
€39,918
Population density
198 /km²
567 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 84 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€8,749M
€9,276M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€138M
€45M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,370M
€3,045M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,239M
€2,780M
GVA — construction (F)
€671M
€477M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,836M
€1,857M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€29,100
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
31,500 PPS
35,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€35,400
€39,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€24,625M
€18,145M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,717M
€5,057M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€57,940M
€52,413M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,027M
€1,893M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,707M
€1,959M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€8,296M
€8,558M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€82,847
€84,285
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,257M
€1,944M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
122,240
126,830
Self-employed persons
13,480
10,760
Employment in manufacturing (C)
26,030
34,890
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
82.3%
80.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
4.0%
6.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.1%
3.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
146,800
138,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
11,223
9,396
Enterprise births
861
751
Enterprise deaths
977
812
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.9%
3.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.5%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.0%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.5%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.6%
30.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
42.8%
33.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.6%
9.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.0%
21.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.3%
8.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,883,944
225,658
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
603 /1k
632 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
9,748 kt
6,194 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,867
1,890
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
685
743
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
58
61
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
168,319
158,825
Population aged 65+
63,950
59,291
Population aged under 15
40,289
36,288
Median age of population
46.2 yrs
46.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
38.0%
37.3%
Crude rate of total population change
2.1 /1k
-0.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.3 /1k
3.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.6 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude death rate
10.8 /1k
12.4 /1k
Live births
2,347
2,025
Deaths
2,941
3,168
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
61.9%
60.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.53
1.48
Population density (persons per km²)
199 /km²
566 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
259,712
244,535
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
18.4%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.2 yrs
81.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
13.1%
16.9%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
950 /100k
1,001 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
234 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
11.4 /100k
40.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
150 /100k
203 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
686 /100k
1,100 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
34 /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)
1,054 m
97 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
7 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
112 days/yr
48 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
11 days/yr
2 days/yr