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 · NL224
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zuidwest-Gelderland (Opportunity 77). Runner-up: Noord-Friesland (63). Contrarian pick: Noord-Friesland — leads the set on Digital readiness (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Freight intensity (95) · Digital readiness (94)
Red flags
Flood: 70% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Zuidwest-Gelderland
Flood: 70% of population in the 100-year floodplain. Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 25) — Noord-Friesland may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zuidwest-Gelderland 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
76.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
62.5
81.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
61.3
67.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
83.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
55.0
65.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
79.3
89.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.6
70.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
—
2.2% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
—
1.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€43,629
€52,802
Population density
214 /km²
337 /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)
€12,920M
€12,186M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€461M
€672M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,009M
€1,542M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,270M
€1,397M
GVA — construction (F)
€759M
€905M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,266M
€3,445M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€24,800
€26,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
37,500 PPS
45,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€43,800
€53,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€6,262M
€23,257M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€616M
€2,035M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€13,205M
€50,437M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€972M
€959M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€300M
€278M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,251M
€2,919M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,881M
€1,793M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
—
€11,233M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
—
€102,003
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
—
€3,004M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
166,600
139,200
Self-employed persons
32,600
28,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
12,200
12,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
85.6%
86.2%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.6%
7.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
—
3.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
—
146,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
35,353
33,565
Enterprise births
3,044
2,667
Enterprise deaths
1,581
1,481
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.5%
6.2%
Innovation & R&D
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.6%
4.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
38.6%
44.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.1%
53.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
24.1%
25.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.6%
30.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.5%
12.8%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.6%
99.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,093,770
723,883
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
523 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,256
692
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
8,441 kt
15,978 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
63 km/1000km²
81 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
381
269
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
51
46
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
207,386
162,741
Population aged 65+
73,953
52,960
Population aged under 15
48,634
41,462
Median age of population
43.7 yrs
43.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
35.7%
32.5%
Crude rate of total population change
3.8 /1k
5.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.5 /1k
4.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.5 /1k
10.2 /1k
Crude death rate
10.3 /1k
8.9 /1k
Live births
2,814
2,623
Deaths
3,398
2,278
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.1%
58.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.46
1.78
Population density (persons per km²)
231 /km²
365 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
246,870
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.9%
14.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.7 yrs
81.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.4%
12.1%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,018 /100k
1,014 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
239 /100k
249 /100k
Safety & crime
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
—
11.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
163 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
—
799 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
53 /M
50 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.77
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.72
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.73
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.92
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
—
0.63
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.142/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
-1 m
4 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
30 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr