NUTS-3 NL350 · Netherlands
Population
1,409,1442025
GDP
€106,260M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
85.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,562.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL350 · FRJ23
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Utrecht (Opportunity 83). Runner-up: Haute-Garonne (61). Contrarian pick: Haute-Garonne — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 97).
Why you might not pick Utrecht
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 9) — Haute-Garonne may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Utrecht 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
83.2
61.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
81.3
63.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
73.4
56.0
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
42.3
41.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
68.0
49.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
98.0
91.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
62.4
47.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
—
3.7% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
1.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
—
3.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€75,408
€48,783
Population density
902 /km²
236 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
898
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
243
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€95,362M
€65,584M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€481M
€130M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€6,486M
€11,264M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,601M
€9,647M
GVA — construction (F)
€4,443M
€3,513M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€23,401M
€13,638M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,600
€23,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
64,900 PPS
45,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€75,600
€49,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€18,985M
€27,134M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,324M
€3,274M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€47,561M
€63,709M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€6,857M
€7,480M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€8,198M
€5,129M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€30,622M
€20,788M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€23,003M
€16,252M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
—
€66,171M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
—
€98,768
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
—
€16,353M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
903,100
756,700
Self-employed persons
135,600
77,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
40,000
74,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
87.6%
76.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.5%
15.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
—
6.5%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
—
772,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
200,842
123,292
Enterprise births
18,550
17,875
Enterprise deaths
9,529
14,472
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.7%
7.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
4.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
8.1%
7.1%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
2.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
58.2%
47.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
66.2%
56.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
28.3%
18.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
40.0%
33.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
16.1%
14.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.6%
95.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,626,106
5,625,077
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
560 /1k
—
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
3,535
5,547
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
29,282 kt
31,349 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
251
369
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
124 km/1000km²
14 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
37
48
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)
920,570
995,003
Population aged 65+
259,611
265,991
Population aged under 15
228,963
242,246
Median age of population
40.0 yrs
39.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
28.2%
26.7%
Crude rate of total population change
6.5 /1k
10.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.3 /1k
8.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.4 /1k
9.7 /1k
Crude death rate
8.2 /1k
7.1 /1k
Live births
14,601
14,454
Deaths
11,551
10,579
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.1%
51.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.47
1.38
Population density (persons per km²)
938 /km²
236 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
1,906,359
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
15.8%
23.3%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
83.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.3%
18.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
564 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
—
780 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
237 /100k
211 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
1.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
—
91.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
524 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
—
2,243 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
35 /M
60 /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)
4 m
311 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
23 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
31 days/yr
19 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr