NUTS-3 DE279 · Germany
Population
183,5952025
GDP
€7,786M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
2.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
84.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
515.3 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE279 · DE145
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Alb-Donau-Kreis (Opportunity 65). Runner-up: Neu-Ulm (58). Contrarian pick: Neu-Ulm — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 73).
Strengths
Industrial base (96) · Labour market (93)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
#2Neu-Ulm
Strengths
Labour market (93) · Industrial base (89)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Flood: 23% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Alb-Donau-Kreis
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 12) — Neu-Ulm may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Alb-Donau-Kreis 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
57.8
64.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
65.8
57.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.0
74.0
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
39.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
72.7
69.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
40.5
70.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
35.2
49.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.3% 5y
0.7% 5y
Population
0.9% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.2% 5y
2.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€42,406
€38,886
Population density
356 /km²
150 /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)
€7,111M
€7,187M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€53M
€127M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,296M
€2,959M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,158M
€2,690M
GVA — construction (F)
€349M
€498M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,503M
€1,119M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€30,100
€30,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
38,200 PPS
34,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€42,900
€39,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€20,600M
€25,503M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,395M
€7,289M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€49,117M
€52,964M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,668M
€1,375M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,241M
€1,109M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€6,643M
€6,815M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€91,561
€100,955
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,771M
€2,012M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
88,990
82,190
Self-employed persons
7,440
8,510
Employment in manufacturing (C)
24,060
24,120
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
83.6%
83.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
4.4%
—
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
2.7%
2.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
105,900
114,700
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
6,378
7,282
Enterprise births
499
600
Enterprise deaths
556
604
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.4%
3.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.4%
3.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.6%
6.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.0%
2.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
34.1%
40.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
38.8%
47.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
7.1%
9.9%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.4%
27.6%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.1%
11.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
490,599
592,114
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
639 /1k
639 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
6,877 kt
10,742 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
992
1,177
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
540
582
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
34
51
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
117,696
128,744
Population aged 65+
38,805
41,971
Population aged under 15
27,094
31,639
Median age of population
43.8 yrs
44.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.0%
32.6%
Crude rate of total population change
5.7 /1k
2.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
7.1 /1k
4.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.0 /1k
9.1 /1k
Crude death rate
10.5 /1k
10.2 /1k
Live births
1,655
1,831
Deaths
1,917
2,066
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.0%
57.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.45
1.54
Population density (persons per km²)
358 /km²
149 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
170,921
200,589
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.5%
16.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.1 yrs
82.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
11.4%
12.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
989 /100k
938 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
211 /100k
195 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
30.1 /100k
11.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
132 /100k
120 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
780 /100k
645 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
39 /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)
541 m
669 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
91 days/yr
93 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
4 days/yr