NUTS-3 DEA1F · Germany
Population
457,9182025
GDP
€16,044M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
76.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,043.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEA1F · ITC4B
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Wesel (Opportunity 65). Runner-up: Mantova (60). Contrarian pick: Mantova — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 87).
#2Mantova
Strengths
Demographic outlook (87) · Freight intensity (86)
Red flags
Flood: 26% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Long-run slide: down 22 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Wesel
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 31) — Mantova may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Wesel 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
64.6
60.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
62.3
51.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
48.0
49.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
60.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
76.3
52.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
43.8
29.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
36.2
45.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.3% 5y
3.1% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.7% 5y
8.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€35,038
€39,067
Population density
439 /km²
175 /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)
€14,655M
€14,310M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€192M
€861M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,371M
€4,393M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,613M
€4,131M
GVA — construction (F)
€927M
€756M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,117M
€2,508M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€27,100
€26,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
31,300 PPS
40,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€35,100
€39,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€40,936M
€101,220M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€5,526M
€19,922M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€145,544M
€188,904M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€1,664M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€190M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,359M
€3,875M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,689M
€1,918M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€13,492M
€14,504M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€82,601
€88,551
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,514M
€3,337M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
204,970
185,300
Self-employed persons
17,930
41,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
26,960
48,600
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.8%
71.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
8.1%
10.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.8%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
222,900
189,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
15,950
29,458
Enterprise births
1,340
1,870
Enterprise deaths
1,383
1,652
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.4%
3.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.6%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.6%
5.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.0%
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
31.8%
23.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
35.9%
34.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.6%
11.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.3%
18.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.7%
5.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
96.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
768,310
838,919
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
567 /1k
640 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
15,354 kt
20,373 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,140
27
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
32 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
467
7
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
31
30
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
7
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
280,655
257,712
Population aged 65+
114,563
100,761
Population aged under 15
62,700
49,271
Median age of population
48.7 yrs
49.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
40.8%
39.1%
Crude rate of total population change
0.8 /1k
1.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.7 /1k
7.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.7 /1k
6.1 /1k
Crude death rate
13.6 /1k
11.6 /1k
Live births
3,537
2,505
Deaths
6,235
4,736
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
63.2%
58.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.42
1.22
Population density (persons per km²)
456 /km²
180 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
414,949
410,678
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
23.6%
12.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.4 yrs
84.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.5%
9.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
322 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,075 /100k
835 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
254 /100k
222 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.1 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
40.0 /100k
30.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
430 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,246 /100k
945 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
22 /M
38 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.53
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.161/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.055/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
16 m
28 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
49 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
31 days/yr
31 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
8 days/yr