NUTS-3 DEA42 · Germany
Population
363,9822025
GDP
€21,463M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81.7%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
966 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEA42 · BE224
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Hasselt (Opportunity 73). Runner-up: Gütersloh (66). Contrarian pick: Gütersloh — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 97).
Why you might not pick Arr. Hasselt
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 22) — Gütersloh may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Gütersloh · Manufacturing → Gütersloh · Office → Arr. Hasselt · Residential → Gütersloh.
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
66.4
73.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
47.5
64.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.4
61.0
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
41.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
70.7
80.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
36.3
78.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
43.0
52.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.2% 5y
2.5% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.7% 5y
3.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€58,968
€50,789
Population density
377 /km²
493 /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)
€19,605M
€20,045M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€183M
€120M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€8,149M
€3,085M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€7,824M
€2,455M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,054M
€1,220M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,921M
€4,863M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,000
€28,300
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
52,700 PPS
45,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€59,200
€50,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€18,145M
€9,890M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€5,057M
€1,527M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€52,413M
€19,341M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
—
€1,821M
GVA — information & communication (J)
—
€857M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,730M
€5,372M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,569M
€5,386M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€18,089M
€18,687M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€96,422
€106,924
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€4,109M
€6,038M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
234,330
213,600
Self-employed persons
15,220
34,700
Employment in manufacturing (C)
78,660
22,000
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.3%
73.0%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.8%
9.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
4.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
202,500
201,600
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
13,713
—
Enterprise births
1,029
—
Enterprise deaths
1,102
—
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.6%
—
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.8%
1.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
4.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.3%
1.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
30.9%
41.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
33.6%
49.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.3%
14.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.1%
28.6%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.3%
10.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
95.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
527,440
1,202,546
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
632 /1k
545 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
14,039 kt
12,548 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,017
2,603
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
554
597
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
44 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
40
31
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
232,819
273,829
Population aged 65+
77,074
98,414
Population aged under 15
54,089
63,797
Median age of population
45.2 yrs
44.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.1%
35.9%
Crude rate of total population change
0.8 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.5 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.8 /1k
7.9 /1k
Crude death rate
11.4 /1k
9.6 /1k
Live births
3,206
3,453
Deaths
4,158
4,168
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.3%
59.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.58
1.34
Population density (persons per km²)
376 /km²
—
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
403,377
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.1%
10.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.2 yrs
83.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.9%
6.7%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
463 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,001 /100k
843 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
234 /100k
196 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
31.6 /100k
28.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
194 /100k
237 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,102 /100k
807 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
38 /M
46 /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)
71 m
41 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
9 days/yr
7 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
47 days/yr
35 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
2 days/yr