NUTS-3 DE134 · Germany
Population
444,8582025
GDP
€21,143M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
83.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,861.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE134 · DE123
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Karlsruhe, Landkreis (Opportunity 71). Runner-up: Ortenaukreis (67). Contrarian pick: Ortenaukreis — leads the set on Labour market (EU pctl 89).
Why you might not pick Karlsruhe, Landkreis
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 19) — Ortenaukreis may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Karlsruhe, Landkreis 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
67.3
70.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
68.8
64.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
70.3
65.9
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
65.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
75.3
63.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
55.3
68.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
35.0
44.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.8% 5y
1.1% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.4% 5y
4.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€47,528
€42,763
Population density
239 /km²
420 /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)
€19,312M
€17,822M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€160M
€77M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€5,851M
€5,232M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,424M
€4,744M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,111M
€1,092M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,063M
€3,626M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€29,100
€29,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
42,600 PPS
38,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€47,800
€42,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€24,625M
€31,701M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,717M
€6,099M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€57,940M
€83,032M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,991M
€5,025M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€4,137M
€2,769M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€18,313M
€16,923M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€88,822
€94,969
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€4,981M
€4,087M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
251,690
217,850
Self-employed persons
20,230
18,660
Employment in manufacturing (C)
63,430
45,770
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
82.3%
81.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
4.0%
5.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.1%
3.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
243,800
231,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
16,599
17,065
Enterprise births
1,413
1,533
Enterprise deaths
1,390
1,533
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.0%
4.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.5%
5.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.0%
9.1%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.5%
3.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.6%
40.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
42.8%
45.6%
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%
27.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.3%
13.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,246,684
687,070
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
603 /1k
597 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
18,569 kt
15,606 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,607
1,728
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
586
379
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
30
53
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
279,554
287,828
Population aged 65+
100,115
103,633
Population aged under 15
65,189
64,803
Median age of population
45.5 yrs
46.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
35.8%
36.0%
Crude rate of total population change
3.1 /1k
2.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.5 /1k
4.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.7 /1k
8.4 /1k
Crude death rate
11.2 /1k
10.9 /1k
Live births
3,882
3,841
Deaths
4,964
4,975
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.1%
58.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.53
1.50
Population density (persons per km²)
241 /km²
427 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
452,747
435,223
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
18.4%
20.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.2 yrs
82.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
13.1%
14.9%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
950 /100k
980 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
216 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.5 /100k
1.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
30.4 /100k
23.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
211 /100k
134 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,056 /100k
720 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
34 /M
26 /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)
212 m
153 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
11 days/yr
14 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
57 days/yr
51 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
2 days/yr