NUTS-3 DE404 · Germany
Population
184,7542025
GDP
€9,550M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81.6%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
187 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE404 · DE724
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Marburg-Biedenkopf (Opportunity 66). Runner-up: Potsdam, Kreisfreie Stadt (57). Contrarian pick: Potsdam, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 85).
Strengths
Economic base (85) · Labour market (70)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Marburg-Biedenkopf
Its weakest dimension is Energy cost (EU pctl 36) — Potsdam, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Marburg-Biedenkopf 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
56.5
66.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
50.5
36.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
52.3
60.8
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
40.7
47.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
62.0
63.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
27.0
43.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
51.8
57.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.0% 5y
1.4% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.5% 5y
6.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€51,693
€49,099
Population density
988 /km²
191 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 85 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€8,723M
€10,889M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€9M
€49M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€437M
€4,156M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€100M
€3,823M
GVA — construction (F)
€240M
€381M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,516M
€1,199M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,000
€26,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
46,300 PPS
43,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€52,000
€49,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€23,042M
€10,597M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,607M
€1,976M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€47,281M
€25,139M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,626M
€2,308M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,896M
€2,796M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€7,660M
€10,366M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€85,288
€95,307
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,338M
€2,844M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
118,200
132,440
Self-employed persons
8,800
9,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
2,390
30,430
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.0%
78.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.3%
—
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
2.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
99,200
136,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
6,943
7,561
Enterprise births
648
641
Enterprise deaths
646
659
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.2%
3.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
2.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.1%
5.0%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
1.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
32.2%
32.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
31.8%
38.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
6.4%
10.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.9%
22.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.6%
7.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,318,350
538,147
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
584 /1k
641 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,477 kt
5,943 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
735
1,844
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
398
760
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
28 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
33
78
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)
120,046
158,742
Population aged 65+
37,970
51,600
Population aged under 15
26,738
32,463
Median age of population
42.8 yrs
43.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.6%
32.5%
Crude rate of total population change
2.5 /1k
-1.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.9 /1k
2.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.7 /1k
7.9 /1k
Crude death rate
10.1 /1k
11.4 /1k
Live births
1,427
1,916
Deaths
1,859
2,771
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.9%
53.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.14
1.22
Population density (persons per km²)
1,079 /km²
193 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
172,216
238,435
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
19.6%
24.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.0 yrs
80.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.7%
18.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,113 /100k
1,062 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
245 /100k
236 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
48.8 /100k
33.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
370 /100k
184 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,266 /100k
981 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
45 /M
31 /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)
43 m
185 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
9 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
54 days/yr
67 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr