NUTS-3 DE945 · Germany
Population
75,7452025
GDP
€3,709M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
2.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
83.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
104.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE945 · DEB15
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Birkenfeld (Opportunity 51). Runner-up: Wilhelmshaven, Kreisfreie Stadt (42). Contrarian pick: Wilhelmshaven, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Labour market (EU pctl 82).
Strengths
Labour market (82) · Freight intensity (81)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Birkenfeld
Its weakest dimension is Talent & skills (EU pctl 21) — Wilhelmshaven, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Birkenfeld · Manufacturing → Wilhelmshaven, Kreisfreie Stadt · Office → Birkenfeld · Residential → Birkenfeld.
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
42.2
50.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
50.0
64.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
53.3
65.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
76.7
97.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
45.7
82.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
34.0
21.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
40.6
45.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.6% 5y
0.2% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
15.1% 5y
13.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€48,965
€35,003
Population density
728 /km²
106 /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)
€3,388M
€2,641M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€11M
€26M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€694M
€594M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€426M
€444M
GVA — construction (F)
€134M
€200M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€547M
€327M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€27,000
€27,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
43,500 PPS
31,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€48,800
€35,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€31,047M
€13,756M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,687M
€2,010M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€59,034M
€33,032M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€548M
€602M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,454M
€894M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,087M
€2,464M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€86,967
€78,718
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€998M
€632M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
45,150
38,640
Self-employed persons
2,030
3,470
Employment in manufacturing (C)
3,770
7,360
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
81.8%
81.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
5.6%
—
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
40,400
42,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
2,011
2,943
Enterprise births
168
205
Enterprise deaths
183
241
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.3%
3.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.8%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.2%
3.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.6%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
30.8%
28.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
38.2%
31.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
8.4%
8.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
20.9%
18.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.5%
7.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
302,089
342,434
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
623 /1k
660 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,439 kt
2,855 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
332
665
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
438
805
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
75
24
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)
46,638
50,394
Population aged 65+
19,647
21,195
Population aged under 15
9,460
11,022
Median age of population
47.4 yrs
48.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
42.1%
42.1%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.5 /1k
-0.1 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.1 /1k
6.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.7 /1k
8.2 /1k
Crude death rate
16.2 /1k
15.1 /1k
Live births
583
681
Deaths
1,232
1,246
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
62.4%
63.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.38
1.57
Population density (persons per km²)
730 /km²
107 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
61,536
77,066
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
26.3%
19.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.6 yrs
80.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
20.8%
12.8%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,034 /100k
1,059 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
236 /100k
242 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.3 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
111 /100k
16.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
979 /100k
177 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,664 /100k
856 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
54 /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)
4 m
334 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
1 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
63 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr