NUTS-3 NL224 · Netherlands
Population
257,1632025
GDP
€13,579M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
84.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
763.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL224 · NL32A
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zuidwest-Gelderland (Opportunity 77). Runner-up: Agglomeratie Haarlem (73). Contrarian pick: Agglomeratie Haarlem — leads the set on Talent & skills (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Freight intensity (95) · Digital readiness (94)
Red flags
Flood: 70% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Strengths
Talent & skills (97) · Labour market (95)
Red flags
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
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) — Agglomeratie Haarlem 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
76.9
73.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
81.0
65.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
67.7
69.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
29.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
65.3
73.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
89.8
96.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
70.0
67.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.2% 5y
—
Population
0.8% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.2% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€52,802
€44,318
Population density
337 /km²
2,029 /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)
€12,186M
€9,440M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€672M
€5M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,542M
€1,266M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,397M
€1,150M
GVA — construction (F)
€905M
€196M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,445M
€1,878M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,500
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
45,500 PPS
38,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€53,000
€44,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€23,257M
€41,901M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,035M
€3,039M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€50,437M
€104,822M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€959M
€1,403M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€278M
€388M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,919M
€2,902M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,793M
€2,624M
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
139,200
111,100
Self-employed persons
28,200
25,600
Employment in manufacturing (C)
12,500
5,000
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
86.2%
86.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.6%
8.8%
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)
33,565
38,640
Enterprise births
2,667
3,487
Enterprise deaths
1,481
1,942
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.2%
6.8%
Innovation & R&D
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.7%
6.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
44.1%
52.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
53.8%
62.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
25.7%
27.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.0%
36.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
12.8%
14.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.2%
99.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
723,883
1,881,930
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
523 /1k
428 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
692
459
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
15,978 kt
898 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
81 km/1000km²
108 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
269
193
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
46
13
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
162,741
150,227
Population aged 65+
52,960
48,822
Population aged under 15
41,462
38,298
Median age of population
43.7 yrs
43.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.5%
32.5%
Crude rate of total population change
5.9 /1k
3.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.5 /1k
5.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.2 /1k
9.2 /1k
Crude death rate
8.9 /1k
10.6 /1k
Live births
2,623
2,183
Deaths
2,278
2,512
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
58.0%
58.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.78
1.38
Population density (persons per km²)
365 /km²
2,078 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
246,870
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.0%
16.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.9 yrs
82.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.1%
14.8%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,014 /100k
990 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
244 /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
50 /M
27 /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)
4 m
10 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
30 days/yr
21 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr