NUTS-3 DEA45 · Germany
Population
347,1492025
GDP
€12,891M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81.7%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,250 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEA45 · DEA5B
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Soest (Opportunity 64). Runner-up: Lippe (59). Contrarian pick: Lippe — leads the set on Labour market (EU pctl 72).
Why you might not pick Soest
Its weakest dimension is Talent & skills (EU pctl 28) — Lippe may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Soest 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
59.0
63.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
55.0
49.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
58.5
55.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
70.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
72.0
81.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
36.3
28.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
32.6
42.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.7% 5y
0.5% 5y
Population
0.0% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.5% 5y
4.9% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€37,134
€44,781
Population density
278 /km²
226 /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)
€11,775M
€12,283M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€99M
€244M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,455M
€4,294M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€3,079M
€3,869M
GVA — construction (F)
€565M
€652M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,904M
€2,112M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,000
€26,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
33,000 PPS
39,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€37,000
€44,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€18,145M
€29,556M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€5,057M
€4,134M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€52,413M
€86,336M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,543M
€2,352M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,208M
€2,630M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€10,864M
€11,322M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€82,515
€90,761
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,468M
€2,633M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
164,460
156,510
Self-employed persons
13,630
12,940
Employment in manufacturing (C)
38,430
36,400
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.3%
77.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.8%
9.5%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
4.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
184,700
146,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
11,891
10,983
Enterprise births
909
878
Enterprise deaths
962
845
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.7%
3.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.8%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.3%
1.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
30.9%
27.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
33.6%
32.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.3%
9.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.1%
18.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.3%
7.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
951,866
765,766
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
632 /1k
603 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
8,248 kt
16,138 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,560
2,384
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
737
794
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
47
32
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)
212,390
189,157
Population aged 65+
82,892
69,469
Population aged under 15
51,867
41,671
Median age of population
46.5 yrs
47.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
39.0%
36.7%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.3 /1k
-0.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.0 /1k
4.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.6 /1k
7.9 /1k
Crude death rate
12.9 /1k
12.8 /1k
Live births
2,996
2,387
Deaths
4,492
3,855
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
63.4%
58.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.60
1.46
Population density (persons per km²)
279 /km²
228 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
385,137
333,562
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.1%
24.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.2 yrs
80.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.9%
19.6%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,001 /100k
1,106 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
234 /100k
256 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.1 /100k
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
34.5 /100k
41.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
158 /100k
263 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
864 /100k
1,283 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
38 /M
23 /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)
201 m
125 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
7 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
51 days/yr
43 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
3 days/yr