NUTS-3 DED44 · Germany
Population
219,1002025
GDP
€7,019M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,416.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DED44 · DEE09
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Harz (Opportunity 43). Runner-up: Vogtlandkreis (42). Contrarian pick: Vogtlandkreis — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 72).
Why you might not pick Harz
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Talent & skills (EU pctl 14) — Vogtlandkreis may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Harz · Manufacturing → Vogtlandkreis · Office → Harz · Residential → Harz.
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
41.8
43.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
49.8
38.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
55.1
50.9
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
73.3
81.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
64.7
53.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
22.0
14.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
16.2
23.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.1% 5y
0.5% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.9% 5y
6.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€32,036
€31,125
Population density
155 /km²
98 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 85 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€6,411M
€5,842M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€121M
€177M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,661M
€1,556M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,470M
€1,241M
GVA — construction (F)
€631M
€426M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,074M
€985M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,500
€24,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
28,200 PPS
27,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€31,700
€30,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€10,850M
€15,488M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,837M
€2,294M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€27,479M
€40,875M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,147M
€1,003M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,776M
€1,696M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€6,036M
€5,121M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€73,563
€75,258
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,559M
€1,286M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
102,180
89,500
Self-employed persons
10,360
7,670
Employment in manufacturing (C)
23,960
17,310
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.5%
78.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
—
6.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.4%
4.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
108,100
95,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
8,333
6,511
Enterprise births
399
387
Enterprise deaths
612
487
3-year enterprise survival rate
2.1%
3.1%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.1%
1.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.7%
3.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.1%
0.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
29.3%
25.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
31.1%
28.9%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
8.0%
7.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.8%
16.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.3%
6.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
840,579
2,464,529
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
602 /1k
573 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
7,179 kt
8,764 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,246
1,592
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
1,025
775
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
26 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
54
94
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
123,544
119,313
Population aged 65+
69,437
63,047
Population aged under 15
26,119
23,124
Median age of population
53.7 yrs
53.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
56.2%
52.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-9.0 /1k
-8.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.8 /1k
5.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.4 /1k
5.0 /1k
Crude death rate
17.3 /1k
18.1 /1k
Live births
1,195
1,041
Deaths
3,805
3,740
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
77.3%
72.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.42
1.27
Population density (persons per km²)
157 /km²
98 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
187,312
277,639
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
21.6%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.7 yrs
79.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
18.2%
21.3%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,211 /100k
1,223 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
239 /100k
276 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.7 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
32.6 /100k
32.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
301 /100k
346 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
965 /100k
1,164 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
29 /M
52 /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)
514 m
219 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
87 days/yr
60 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr