NUTS-3 DEF0A · Germany
Population
130,6092025
GDP
€3,418M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,086.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEF0A · DE725
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Vogelsbergkreis (Opportunity 52). Runner-up: Plön (45). Contrarian pick: Plön — leads the set on Air quality (EU pctl 90).
Why you might not pick Vogelsbergkreis
Its weakest dimension is Energy cost (EU pctl 36) — Plön may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Vogelsbergkreis 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
44.9
52.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
59.8
57.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
65.7
61.6
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
89.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
58.3
66.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
35.5
43.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
43.0
50.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.4% 5y
0.5% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.9% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.5% 5y
5.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€26,172
€35,586
Population density
120 /km²
69 /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)
€3,122M
€3,288M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€113M
€78M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€446M
€854M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€329M
€589M
GVA — construction (F)
€268M
€220M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€481M
€553M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,800
€26,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
23,300 PPS
31,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€26,200
€35,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€27,063M
€10,597M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,460M
€1,976M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€61,661M
€25,139M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€898M
€760M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€917M
€823M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,831M
€3,130M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€79,753
€81,636
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€768M
€859M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
45,970
46,690
Self-employed persons
5,850
4,680
Employment in manufacturing (C)
3,880
9,250
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.3%
78.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.0%
—
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
2.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
64,900
52,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
4,646
3,613
Enterprise births
340
281
Enterprise deaths
405
294
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.8%
3.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
2.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.0%
5.0%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
1.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
31.8%
32.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
32.4%
38.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
10.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.5%
22.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.6%
7.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,671,953
408,007
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
593 /1k
641 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,216 kt
4,738 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,363
1,213
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
1,044
1,199
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
35 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
74
82
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
77,259
60,826
Population aged 65+
36,015
27,113
Population aged under 15
17,335
13,224
Median age of population
51.6 yrs
50.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
46.6%
44.6%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.2 /1k
-3.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
7.9 /1k
3.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.3 /1k
7.6 /1k
Crude death rate
14.3 /1k
13.9 /1k
Live births
817
773
Deaths
1,871
1,411
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
69.1%
66.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.32
1.59
Population density (persons per km²)
132 /km²
70 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
101,878
92,989
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.9%
24.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.8 yrs
80.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.8%
18.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,015 /100k
1,062 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
251 /100k
236 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
2.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
27.6 /100k
18.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
257 /100k
162 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
852 /100k
623 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
29 /M
31 /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)
45 m
541 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
51 days/yr
83 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
4 days/yr