NUTS-3 DE916 · Germany
Population
126,7752025
GDP
€4,681M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
970.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE916 · DEG0R
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Wartburgkreis (Opportunity 46). Runner-up: Goslar (46). Contrarian pick: Goslar — leads the set on Air quality (EU pctl 92).
Why you might not pick Wartburgkreis
Its weakest dimension is Resilience (EU pctl 24) — Goslar may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Wartburgkreis · Manufacturing → Wartburgkreis · Office → Goslar · Residential → Goslar.
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
45.9
46.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
37.8
24.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
63.4
57.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
92.3
73.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
55.3
64.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
54.5
28.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
30.2
25.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.4% 5y
—
Population
1.4% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.7% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€36,927
€38,478
Population density
131 /km²
113 /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)
€4,276M
€5,446M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€65M
€99M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,092M
€2,045M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€879M
€1,847M
GVA — construction (F)
€183M
€291M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€777M
€750M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,800
€25,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
32,600 PPS
34,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€36,600
€38,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€22,342M
€14,609M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€7,903M
€3,167M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€43,988M
€42,299M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€945M
€993M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,213M
€1,267M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€4,049M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€81,042
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,195M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
62,130
75,910
Self-employed persons
6,470
5,920
Employment in manufacturing (C)
8,990
22,530
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
79.0%
80.5%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.6%
7.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.0%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
63,000
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
4,336
4,659
Enterprise births
319
208
Enterprise deaths
367
337
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.2%
2.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
5.9%
2.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.0%
4.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
3.9%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
34.9%
30.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
38.1%
35.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.8%
8.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
24.8%
19.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.6%
7.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,291,180
680,642
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
640 /1k
568 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,982 kt
6,006 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
907
1,054
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
715
680
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
32 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
81
52
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
76,180
91,311
Population aged 65+
36,081
44,056
Population aged under 15
14,514
19,590
Median age of population
51.7 yrs
51.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
47.4%
48.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-7.4 /1k
-8.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.5 /1k
0.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.4 /1k
5.5 /1k
Crude death rate
17.3 /1k
14.5 /1k
Live births
818
853
Deaths
2,202
2,260
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
66.4%
69.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.30
1.34
Population density (persons per km²)
133 /km²
115 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
115,817
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
21.9%
23.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.5 yrs
80.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.7%
17.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,055 /100k
1,212 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
245 /100k
228 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
0.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
24.3 /100k
21.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
282 /100k
196 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,184 /100k
833 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
31 /M
46 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
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)
578 m
301 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
1 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
89 days/yr
73 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
7 days/yr
2 days/yr