NUTS-3 DE271 · Germany
Population
301,1052025
GDP
€16,694M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
2.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
84.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
149.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE271 · DE122
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Karlsruhe, Stadtkreis (Opportunity 70). Runner-up: Augsburg, Kreisfreie Stadt (61). Contrarian pick: Augsburg, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Labour market (EU pctl 93).
Strengths
Labour market (93) · Economic base (89)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Flood: 30% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Karlsruhe, Stadtkreis
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 19) — Augsburg, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Karlsruhe, Stadtkreis 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
61.0
69.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
62.3
57.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
58.7
67.8
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
48.0
58.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
52.7
68.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
40.5
68.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
27.2
36.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.4% 5y
1.1% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.6% 5y
0.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€55,442
€82,865
Population density
2,009 /km²
1,792 /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)
€15,248M
€23,392M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€15M
€14M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,281M
€5,016M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,614M
€3,632M
GVA — construction (F)
€475M
€710M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,104M
€6,746M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€30,100
€29,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
49,900 PPS
74,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€56,100
€83,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€20,600M
€31,701M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,395M
€6,099M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€49,117M
€83,032M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,840M
€6,146M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€4,533M
€4,759M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€14,244M
€22,212M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€87,729
€112,776
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,798M
€5,365M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
199,150
240,790
Self-employed persons
13,530
15,390
Employment in manufacturing (C)
27,270
19,120
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
83.6%
81.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
4.4%
5.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
2.7%
3.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
182,000
170,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
11,216
12,382
Enterprise births
1,085
1,169
Enterprise deaths
1,013
1,133
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.1%
4.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.4%
5.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.6%
9.1%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.0%
3.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
34.1%
40.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
38.8%
45.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
7.1%
9.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.4%
27.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.1%
13.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,177,702
1,279,742
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
639 /1k
597 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,797 kt
12,561 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
818
1,161
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
272
376
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
64
36
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
202,262
211,248
Population aged 65+
58,990
60,660
Population aged under 15
39,853
37,142
Median age of population
41.3 yrs
41.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
29.2%
28.7%
Crude rate of total population change
7.1 /1k
2.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.4 /1k
4.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.2 /1k
7.6 /1k
Crude death rate
10.5 /1k
9.7 /1k
Live births
2,766
2,358
Deaths
3,150
2,990
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
48.9%
46.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.25
1.09
Population density (persons per km²)
2,041 /km²
1,826 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
296,359
424,590
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.5%
20.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.1 yrs
82.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
11.4%
14.9%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
989 /100k
980 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
211 /100k
216 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.0 /100k
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
51.8 /100k
74.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
235 /100k
415 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,296 /100k
1,775 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
39 /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)
494 m
118 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
19 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
86 days/yr
46 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
3 days/yr