NUTS-3 NL221 · Netherlands
Population
726,8912025
GDP
€40,884M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
84.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,865.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL221 · HR050
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Veluwe (Opportunity 81). Runner-up: Grad Zagreb (60). Contrarian pick: Grad Zagreb — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 91).
Strengths
Economic base (91) · Talent & skills (86)
Red flags
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Veluwe
Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 27) — Grad Zagreb may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Veluwe 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
81.4
59.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
83.0
30.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
66.9
46.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
64.7
1.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
54.3
54.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
89.8
85.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
69.8
72.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.4% 5y
5.7% 5y
Population
0.9% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.6% 5y
8.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€56,245
€37,456
Population density
390 /km²
1,221 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€36,691M
€24,145M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€700M
€32M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€4,533M
€2,735M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€4,295M
€2,100M
GVA — construction (F)
€2,677M
€1,181M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€7,801M
€8,652M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,500
€13,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
48,400 PPS
52,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€56,400
€37,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€23,257M
€7,329M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,035M
€461M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€50,437M
€14,255M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€2,960M
€1,092M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€1,064M
€2,634M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€9,291M
€6,332M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€8,808M
€5,213M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€33,821M
€23,326M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€103,215
€80,212
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€9,045M
€8,099M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
414,200
387,180
Self-employed persons
69,000
32,030
Employment in manufacturing (C)
34,700
41,510
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
86.2%
77.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.6%
15.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.4%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
408,500
395,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
85,872
67,348
Enterprise births
7,279
8,203
Enterprise deaths
3,919
3,641
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.2%
5.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
2.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.7%
12.2%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
2.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
44.1%
51.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
53.8%
58.9%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
25.7%
10.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.0%
41.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
12.8%
12.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.2%
92.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
7,814,696
2,721,617
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
523 /1k
511 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
20,902 kt
9,330 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,654
2,102
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
81 km/1000km²
76 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
228
270
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
70
9
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
452,711
502,831
Population aged 65+
154,843
161,220
Population aged under 15
119,337
113,308
Median age of population
42.5 yrs
43.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.2%
32.1%
Crude rate of total population change
6.1 /1k
6.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.8 /1k
9.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.8 /1k
8.9 /1k
Crude death rate
9.6 /1k
11.1 /1k
Live births
7,125
6,862
Deaths
6,943
8,635
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.6%
54.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.64
1.33
Population density (persons per km²)
395 /km²
—
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
738,891
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.0%
12.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.9 yrs
80.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.1%
11.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
695 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,014 /100k
1,456 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
310 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
1.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
14.4 /100k
62.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
173 /100k
289 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
901 /100k
453 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
22 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.72
0.30
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.73
0.43
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.92
0.11
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.63
0.73
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.126/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
40 m
113 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
25 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
37 days/yr
66 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
10 days/yr