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 · DE118
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Heilbronn, Landkreis (Opportunity 78). Runner-up: Gütersloh (66). Contrarian pick: Gütersloh — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Economic base (96) · Industrial base (96)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Heilbronn, Landkreis
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 6) — Gütersloh may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Gütersloh · Manufacturing → Heilbronn, Landkreis · Office → Heilbronn, Landkreis · Residential → Heilbronn, Landkreis.
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
77.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
47.5
54.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.4
77.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
70.7
64.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
36.3
60.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
43.0
57.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.2% 5y
2.4% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.7% 5y
3.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€58,968
€77,107
Population density
377 /km²
321 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 81 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€19,605M
€24,924M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€183M
€132M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€8,149M
€10,028M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€7,824M
€9,393M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,054M
€732M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,921M
€6,946M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,000
€30,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
52,700 PPS
69,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€59,200
€77,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€18,145M
€60,881M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€5,057M
€22,211M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€52,413M
€139,588M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,730M
€5,282M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,569M
€1,804M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€18,089M
€23,651M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€96,422
€154,827
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€4,109M
€6,036M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
234,330
185,550
Self-employed persons
15,220
14,280
Employment in manufacturing (C)
78,660
63,430
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.3%
82.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.8%
6.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
3.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
202,500
199,600
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
13,713
12,421
Enterprise births
1,029
1,022
Enterprise deaths
1,102
1,059
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.6%
4.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.8%
7.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
5.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.3%
4.9%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
30.9%
38.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
33.6%
43.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.3%
9.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.1%
26.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.3%
11.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
527,440
880,413
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
632 /1k
636 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,017
1,750
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
14,039 kt
14,024 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
554
495
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
40
57
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
232,819
225,816
Population aged 65+
77,074
73,890
Population aged under 15
54,089
54,171
Median age of population
45.2 yrs
44.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.1%
32.7%
Crude rate of total population change
0.8 /1k
0.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.5 /1k
2.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.8 /1k
8.8 /1k
Crude death rate
11.4 /1k
10.2 /1k
Live births
3,206
3,110
Deaths
4,158
3,603
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.3%
56.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.58
1.50
Population density (persons per km²)
376 /km²
322 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
403,377
347,560
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.1%
17.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.2 yrs
82.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.9%
12.6%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,001 /100k
938 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
234 /100k
199 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
31.6 /100k
13.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
194 /100k
100 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,102 /100k
610 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
38 /M
27 /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)
71 m
277 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
9 days/yr
12 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
47 days/yr
64 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr