NUTS-3 DEA2D · Germany
Population
582,4102025
GDP
€26,081M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
711.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEA2D · DEA13
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Städteregion Aachen (Opportunity 75). Runner-up: Essen, Kreisfreie Stadt (67). Contrarian pick: Essen, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 87).
Strengths
Connectivity (80) · Economic base (73)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Economic base (87) · Demographic outlook (80)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Städteregion Aachen
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 14) — Essen, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Städteregion Aachen · Manufacturing → Städteregion Aachen · Office → Städteregion Aachen · Residential → Essen, Kreisfreie Stadt.
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
75.0
67.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
67.3
46.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
62.8
44.2
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
63.7
29.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
80.3
73.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
70.3
43.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
55.2
35.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.3% 5y
0.1% 5y
Population
0.9% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.4% 5y
5.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€44,781
€54,443
Population density
819 /km²
2,733 /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)
€23,822M
€28,578M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€64M
€12M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€5,828M
€4,675M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€4,262M
€1,771M
GVA — construction (F)
€893M
€1,136M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,782M
€6,512M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,000
€27,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
40,000 PPS
48,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€44,900
€54,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€34,670M
€40,936M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€6,008M
€5,526M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€125,036M
€145,544M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€5,457M
€9,022M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€6,799M
€7,220M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€22,284M
€26,310M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€89,347
€94,290
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,981M
€4,902M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
308,710
350,160
Self-employed persons
23,710
22,610
Employment in manufacturing (C)
39,970
18,770
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
78.8%
76.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.8%
8.1%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.8%
4.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
314,200
291,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
21,374
19,877
Enterprise births
1,817
1,923
Enterprise deaths
1,881
1,927
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.0%
4.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
4.0%
1.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.3%
4.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.4%
1.0%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
38.8%
31.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
46.1%
35.9%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
11.3%
9.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.8%
22.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.5%
8.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,491,102
1,648,389
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
585 /1k
567 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,070 kt
8,561 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
4,007
1,675
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
688
292
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
37
25
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
5
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
383,763
366,644
Population aged 65+
123,756
126,187
Population aged under 15
74,891
81,851
Median age of population
42.5 yrs
43.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.2%
34.4%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.1 /1k
1.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.2 /1k
5.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.8 /1k
9.2 /1k
Crude death rate
11.1 /1k
13.3 /1k
Live births
4,537
5,289
Deaths
6,445
7,621
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
51.8%
56.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.21
1.40
Population density (persons per km²)
830 /km²
2,775 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
518,459
608,098
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
23.7%
23.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.3 yrs
80.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
17.0%
16.5%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,020 /100k
1,075 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
240 /100k
254 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.4 /100k
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
63.5 /100k
93.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
479 /100k
896 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,673 /100k
2,664 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
27 /M
22 /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)
236 m
102 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
7 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
47 days/yr
38 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
4 days/yr