NUTS-3 NL127 · Netherlands
Population
329,9732025
GDP
€14,397M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
82.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,545.3 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL127 · FRB02
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Noord-Friesland (Opportunity 63). Runner-up: Eure-et-Loir (62). Contrarian pick: Eure-et-Loir — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 88).
Strengths
Energy cost (88) · Talent & skills (73)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 16 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Noord-Friesland
Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 20) — Eure-et-Loir may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Noord-Friesland · Manufacturing → Eure-et-Loir · Office → Noord-Friesland · Residential → Noord-Friesland.
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
63.2
62.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
62.5
62.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
61.3
51.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
83.3
71.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
55.0
54.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
79.3
73.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.6
48.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
—
1.1% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
—
7.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€43,629
€31,515
Population density
214 /km²
73 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
1,359
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
192
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€12,920M
€12,197M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€461M
€345M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,009M
€2,529M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,270M
€2,311M
GVA — construction (F)
€759M
€726M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,266M
€2,249M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€24,800
€23,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
37,500 PPS
29,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€43,800
€31,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€6,262M
€20,283M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€616M
€2,604M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€13,205M
€46,136M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€972M
€1,922M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€300M
€361M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,251M
€3,370M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,881M
€2,980M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
—
€12,102M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
—
€90,507
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
—
€3,076M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
166,600
153,700
Self-employed persons
32,600
17,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
12,200
22,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
85.6%
76.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.6%
18.0%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
—
6.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
—
198,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
35,353
24,899
Enterprise births
3,044
3,490
Enterprise deaths
1,581
2,513
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.5%
6.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
1.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.6%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
1.0%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
38.6%
41.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.1%
51.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
24.1%
16.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.6%
26.6%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.5%
9.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.6%
94.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,093,770
951,162
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
631 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
8,441 kt
14,152 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,256
1,948
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
63 km/1000km²
25 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
381
450
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
51
77
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)
207,386
258,416
Population aged 65+
73,953
96,879
Population aged under 15
48,634
77,829
Median age of population
43.7 yrs
43.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
35.7%
37.5%
Crude rate of total population change
3.8 /1k
-0.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.5 /1k
0.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.5 /1k
9.2 /1k
Crude death rate
10.3 /1k
10.3 /1k
Live births
2,814
3,990
Deaths
3,398
4,451
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.1%
67.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.46
1.76
Population density (persons per km²)
231 /km²
73 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
356,744
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.9%
15.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.7 yrs
82.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.4%
11.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
555 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,018 /100k
862 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
239 /100k
228 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
—
26.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
387 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
—
1,179 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
53 /M
66 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.46
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.27
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.02
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.39
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
—
0.02
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.053/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
-1 m
165 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
2 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
33 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr