NUTS-3 DEC02 · Germany
Population
108,7792025
GDP
€3,395M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
78.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
560.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEC02 · DEB3H
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Südliche Weinstraße (Opportunity 52). Runner-up: Merzig-Wadern (45). Contrarian pick: Merzig-Wadern — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 76).
Strengths
Connectivity (76) · Resilience (65)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 16 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Südliche Weinstraße
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 18) — Merzig-Wadern may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Südliche Weinstraße 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
44.8
52.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
65.3
82.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
49.5
60.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
75.7
71.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
24.3
57.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
39.6
41.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.2% 5y
0.3% 5y
Population
1.1% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.4% 5y
10.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€31,211
€32,374
Population density
194 /km²
176 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 82 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€3,101M
€3,342M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€17M
€211M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€732M
€760M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€490M
€690M
GVA — construction (F)
€189M
€180M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€695M
€565M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,000
€27,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
27,700 PPS
28,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€31,000
€32,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,110M
€20,699M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,529M
€4,472M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,975M
€49,098M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€729M
€832M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€740M
€795M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,819M
€3,109M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€82,500
€82,287
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€660M
€786M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
43,270
46,580
Self-employed persons
3,470
5,180
Employment in manufacturing (C)
6,730
7,710
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.9%
81.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
—
6.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.0%
4.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
55,300
59,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
3,284
4,144
Enterprise births
268
326
Enterprise deaths
318
376
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.8%
4.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.6%
5.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.6%
6.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.1%
2.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
28.1%
36.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
29.6%
41.9%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.0%
10.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
19.9%
25.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.1%
9.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
367,490
661,578
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
646 /1k
621 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
859
645
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,654 kt
4,295 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
790
571
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
94 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
34
44
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
68,018
69,154
Population aged 65+
27,013
28,419
Population aged under 15
13,748
15,458
Median age of population
48.8 yrs
49.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
39.7%
41.1%
Crude rate of total population change
-5.1 /1k
-1.1 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
1.8 /1k
4.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.5 /1k
7.1 /1k
Crude death rate
13.4 /1k
12.3 /1k
Live births
706
800
Deaths
1,460
1,389
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.9%
63.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.20
1.37
Population density (persons per km²)
197 /km²
177 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
95,777
94,260
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
22.2%
23.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
79.9 yrs
81.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
15.5%
16.8%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,123 /100k
1,015 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
243 /100k
231 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.9 /100k
1.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
13.7 /100k
19.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
162 /100k
213 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
777 /100k
634 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
24 /M
25 /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)
251 m
146 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
19 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
55 days/yr
49 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
5 days/yr
2 days/yr