NUTS-3 NL128 · Netherlands
Population
142,7692025
GDP
€6,013M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
82.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,454 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL128 · NL114
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zuidwest-Friesland (Opportunity 59). Runner-up: Oost-Groningen (50). Contrarian pick: Oost-Groningen — leads the set on Talent & skills (EU pctl 92).
Why you might not pick Zuidwest-Friesland
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 49) — Oost-Groningen may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zuidwest-Friesland 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
59.2
50.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
51.8
52.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
62.1
59.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
86.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
54.7
67.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
79.3
91.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
60.6
46.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Population
0.2% 5y
0.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€42,115
€34,888
Population density
98 /km²
181 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 70 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€5,396M
€4,358M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€246M
€216M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,239M
€962M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€984M
€635M
GVA — construction (F)
€292M
€297M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€999M
€685M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€24,800
€24,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
36,300 PPS
30,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€42,300
€35,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€6,262M
€6,193M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€616M
€504M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€13,205M
€14,058M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€475M
€353M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€47M
€73M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,043M
€820M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,134M
€1,324M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
69,500
59,000
Self-employed persons
17,000
11,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
8,400
5,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
85.6%
83.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.6%
9.7%
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
17,417
11,850
Enterprise births
1,226
946
Enterprise deaths
742
594
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.5%
6.1%
Innovation & R&D
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.6%
4.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
38.6%
45.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.1%
60.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
24.1%
26.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.6%
31.2%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.5%
11.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.6%
99.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,039,120
565,236
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
507 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,446 kt
5,235 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
659
672
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
462
483
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
63 km/1000km²
46 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
71
31
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
85,773
84,125
Population aged 65+
35,764
36,050
Population aged under 15
21,232
19,016
Median age of population
47.7 yrs
48.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
41.7%
42.9%
Crude rate of total population change
2.9 /1k
9.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.2 /1k
14.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.4 /1k
7.7 /1k
Crude death rate
10.7 /1k
13.3 /1k
Live births
1,202
1,062
Deaths
1,524
1,837
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
66.4%
65.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.72
1.53
Population density (persons per km²)
162 /km²
186 /km²
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.9%
22.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.7 yrs
80.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.4%
18.6%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,018 /100k
1,078 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
239 /100k
264 /100k
Safety & crime
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
53 /M
40 /M
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)
-2 m
7 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
22 days/yr
39 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
2 days/yr