NUTS-3 DEA1A · Germany
Population
358,1932025
GDP
€14,549M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
76.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
167.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEA1A · BE254
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Kortrijk (Opportunity 70). Runner-up: Wuppertal, Kreisfreie Stadt (61). Contrarian pick: Wuppertal, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 77).
Strengths
Economic base (89) · Talent & skills (82)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Connectivity (77) · Economic base (62)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 20 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Arr. Kortrijk
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 4) — Wuppertal, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Arr. Kortrijk 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
61.0
70.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
58.8
77.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
44.1
60.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
35.7
40.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
77.0
65.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
43.8
82.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
30.0
61.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.2% 5y
2.3% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.0% 5y
1.9% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€40,617
€55,848
Population density
2,138 /km²
744 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€13,289M
€15,412M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€6M
€110M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,031M
€3,209M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,639M
€2,706M
GVA — construction (F)
€427M
€1,286M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,431M
€3,268M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€27,100
€31,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
36,100 PPS
49,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€40,600
€56,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€40,936M
€16,710M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€5,526M
€2,304M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€145,544M
€29,133M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€1,338M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€395M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,643M
€4,552M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,751M
€2,987M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€12,234M
€14,448M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€85,884
€116,954
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,280M
€4,644M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
178,760
150,200
Self-employed persons
14,340
26,300
Employment in manufacturing (C)
28,870
26,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.8%
76.2%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
8.1%
11.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.8%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
183,100
146,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
12,711
—
Enterprise births
1,078
—
Enterprise deaths
1,211
—
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.3%
—
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.6%
1.7%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.6%
3.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.0%
1.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
31.8%
42.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
35.9%
51.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.6%
18.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.3%
30.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.7%
10.4%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
93.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
410,838
397,161
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
567 /1k
512 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,785 kt
6,592 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,655
957
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
462
314
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
59 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
28
31
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
230,512
188,712
Population aged 65+
75,601
67,017
Population aged under 15
52,080
49,154
Median age of population
43.4 yrs
43.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.8%
35.5%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.1 /1k
7.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.1 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.8 /1k
9.4 /1k
Crude death rate
12.1 /1k
10.1 /1k
Live births
3,163
2,857
Deaths
4,323
3,081
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.4%
61.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.40
1.53
Population density (persons per km²)
2,133 /km²
748 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
365,575
295,558
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
23.6%
9.8%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.4 yrs
83.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.5%
5.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
634 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,075 /100k
849 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
254 /100k
205 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.7 /100k
1.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
117 /100k
83.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
419 /100k
326 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,343 /100k
1,341 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
22 /M
43 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
1.31
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
1.41
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.34
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
1.58
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.53
0.25
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.161/kWh
€0.130/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.055/kWh
€0.046/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
291 m
23 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
49 days/yr
29 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
2 days/yr