NUTS-3 NL422 · Netherlands
Population
243,7922025
GDP
€12,468M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
693.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL422 · ITC4A
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Midden-Limburg (Opportunity 75). Runner-up: Cremona (59). Contrarian pick: Cremona — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 94).
#2Cremona
Strengths
Freight intensity (94) · Industrial base (84)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 23 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Midden-Limburg
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 35) — Cremona may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Midden-Limburg 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
75.3
58.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
78.5
50.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
61.4
48.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
69.3
44.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
78.3
29.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
73.8
41.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.0% 5y
2.3% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.0% 5y
10.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€51,141
€39,186
Population density
351 /km²
199 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 88 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€11,189M
€12,459M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€393M
€709M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,465M
€3,697M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,804M
€3,439M
GVA — construction (F)
€659M
€590M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,380M
€2,451M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,400
€26,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
44,000 PPS
40,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€51,300
€39,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€11,196M
€101,220M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,560M
€19,922M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€26,730M
€188,904M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€860M
€1,402M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€136M
€146M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,091M
€3,161M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,216M
€1,851M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€10,330M
€12,628M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€103,967
€97,061
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,618M
€2,905M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
125,400
147,200
Self-employed persons
22,000
32,300
Employment in manufacturing (C)
13,900
36,500
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
83.1%
71.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.4%
10.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
129,900
162,600
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
26,705
23,928
Enterprise births
2,311
1,572
Enterprise deaths
1,331
1,370
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.2%
3.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.8%
5.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.3%
23.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.8%
34.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
22.9%
11.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
26.3%
18.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.7%
5.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.0%
96.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,871,198
520,108
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
640 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
8,084 kt
20,969 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
602
20
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
247
6
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
98 km/1000km²
32 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
32
55
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
5
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
148,541
221,737
Population aged 65+
63,406
90,457
Population aged under 15
31,845
41,729
Median age of population
48.6 yrs
49.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
42.7%
40.8%
Crude rate of total population change
5.0 /1k
2.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.6 /1k
8.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.2 /1k
6.3 /1k
Crude death rate
11.7 /1k
11.8 /1k
Live births
1,985
2,240
Deaths
2,846
4,183
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
64.1%
59.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.48
1.24
Population density (persons per km²)
364 /km²
203 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
212,002
342,614
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
17.2%
12.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.6 yrs
84.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.4%
9.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
322 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,066 /100k
835 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
222 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
0.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
21.4 /100k
32.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
227 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,159 /100k
897 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
33 /M
38 /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
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.73
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.92
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.63
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
25 m
52 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
51 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
34 days/yr
36 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
11 days/yr