NUTS-3 DE21J · Germany
Population
130,7812025
GDP
€7,014M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
85.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
760.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE21J · DE278
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Pfaffenhofen a. d. Ilm (Opportunity 64). Runner-up: Günzburg (57).
Strengths
Freight intensity (98) · Labour market (97)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
#2Günzburg
Strengths
Labour market (93) · Freight intensity (88)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Pfaffenhofen a. d. Ilm
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 2) — Günzburg may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Pfaffenhofen a. d. Ilm 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
64.2
56.6
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
44.8
74.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
78.0
65.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
68.7
71.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
77.0
40.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
57.8
36.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.7% 5y
0.5% 5y
Population
0.4% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
15.7% 5y
11.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€53,628
€51,053
Population density
172 /km²
169 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 82 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€6,406M
€6,055M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€90M
€81M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,590M
€1,699M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,216M
€1,468M
GVA — construction (F)
€366M
€467M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,099M
€966M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€34,700
€30,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
48,400 PPS
45,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€54,400
€51,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€92,019M
€20,600M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€17,837M
€3,395M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€176,106M
€49,117M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,183M
€1,415M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,079M
€1,428M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€6,101M
€5,656M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€116,695
€94,860
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,859M
€1,508M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
62,790
73,140
Self-employed persons
6,190
6,150
Employment in manufacturing (C)
14,530
18,250
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
83.9%
83.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
5.4%
4.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
2.9%
2.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
71,500
75,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
5,148
5,229
Enterprise births
389
382
Enterprise deaths
444
412
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.4%
3.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
5.2%
1.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
8.9%
4.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
3.9%
1.0%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
47.4%
34.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
57.2%
38.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
7.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
32.4%
22.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
13.5%
9.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
281,054
967,040
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
612 /1k
639 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,321 kt
6,673 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
633
723
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
484
557
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
34
40
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
84,668
83,365
Population aged 65+
25,723
27,169
Population aged under 15
20,390
19,312
Median age of population
43.7 yrs
44.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
30.4%
32.6%
Crude rate of total population change
9.9 /1k
1.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
10.3 /1k
2.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.3 /1k
8.9 /1k
Crude death rate
9.7 /1k
10.5 /1k
Live births
1,214
1,156
Deaths
1,265
1,368
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
54.5%
55.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.56
1.53
Population density (persons per km²)
173 /km²
171 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
131,078
134,010
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
15.3%
14.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.7 yrs
82.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
11.8%
11.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
931 /100k
989 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
204 /100k
211 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
2.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
8.5 /100k
6.2 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
91.9 /100k
81.0 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
475 /100k
580 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
35 /M
39 /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)
465 m
556 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
9 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
77 days/yr
89 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
5 days/yr