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 · DEG0Q
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Plön (Opportunity 45). Runner-up: Schmalkalden-Meiningen (42). Contrarian pick: Schmalkalden-Meiningen — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 82).
Why you might not pick Plön
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 11) — Schmalkalden-Meiningen may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Plön 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
42.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
59.8
38.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
65.7
57.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
89.7
85.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
58.3
62.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
35.5
28.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
43.0
24.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.4% 5y
—
Population
0.3% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.5% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€26,172
€34,015
Population density
120 /km²
96 /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
€3,735M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€113M
€94M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€446M
€1,165M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€329M
€1,015M
GVA — construction (F)
€268M
€259M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€481M
€485M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,800
€25,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
23,300 PPS
30,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€26,200
€33,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€27,063M
€14,609M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,460M
€3,167M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€61,661M
€42,299M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€898M
€609M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€917M
€1,123M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,831M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€79,753
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€768M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
45,970
57,340
Self-employed persons
5,850
5,450
Employment in manufacturing (C)
3,880
15,230
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.3%
80.5%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.0%
7.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
64,900
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
4,646
4,576
Enterprise births
340
220
Enterprise deaths
405
365
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.8%
2.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
2.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.0%
4.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
31.8%
30.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
32.4%
35.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
8.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.5%
19.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.6%
7.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,671,953
740,386
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
593 /1k
568 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,216 kt
3,757 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
832
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
1,044
692
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
35 km/1000km²
32 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
74
60
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)
77,259
70,637
Population aged 65+
36,015
35,181
Population aged under 15
17,335
14,396
Median age of population
51.6 yrs
52.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
46.6%
49.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.2 /1k
-7.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
7.9 /1k
3.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.3 /1k
5.0 /1k
Crude death rate
14.3 /1k
16.1 /1k
Live births
817
606
Deaths
1,871
1,947
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
69.1%
70.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.32
1.25
Population density (persons per km²)
132 /km²
97 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
101,878
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.9%
23.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.8 yrs
80.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.8%
17.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,015 /100k
1,212 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
251 /100k
228 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
27.6 /100k
17.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
257 /100k
168 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
852 /100k
796 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
29 /M
46 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
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
357 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
51 days/yr
80 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr