NUTS-3 AT226 · Austria
Population
98,4142025
GDP
€4,094M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
3,071.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
AT226 · DEC03
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Neunkirchen (Opportunity 43). Runner-up: Westliche Obersteiermark (41). Contrarian pick: Westliche Obersteiermark — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 98).
Strengths
Connectivity (65) · Demographic outlook (59)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 12 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Strengths
Freight intensity (98) · Industrial base (82)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Neunkirchen
Long-run slide: down 12 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute). Its weakest dimension is Talent & skills (EU pctl 24) — Westliche Obersteiermark may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Westliche Obersteiermark · Manufacturing → Westliche Obersteiermark · Office → Westliche Obersteiermark · Residential → Neunkirchen.
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
40.6
43.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
59.0
53.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.7
47.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
49.5
38.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
42.5
65.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
66.5
24.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
35.6
29.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.5% 5y
0.7% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.1% 5y
13.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€41,600
€29,802
Population density
32 /km²
528 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 87 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€3,681M
€3,625M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€180M
€6M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,160M
€835M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€976M
€693M
GVA — construction (F)
€250M
€287M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€677M
€698M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€30,700
€25,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
36,700 PPS
26,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€41,400
€29,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€15,264M
€8,110M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,445M
€1,529M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€31,076M
€23,975M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€657M
€852M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€756M
€948M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,599M
€3,296M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€104,802
€76,631
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,045M
€772M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
42,500
54,460
Self-employed persons
6,500
4,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
9,100
8,100
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
78.7%
77.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.3%
—
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.0%
4.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
47,900
66,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
5,328
4,031
Enterprise births
336
320
Enterprise deaths
236
401
3-year enterprise survival rate
2.6%
4.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
5.3%
1.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.9%
4.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
3.1%
1.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
34.9%
28.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
43.8%
29.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
16.1%
9.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
23.4%
19.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.3%
7.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.7%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,483,584
69,548
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
626 /1k
646 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
7,505 kt
2,926 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
—
1,090
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
—
818
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
19 km/1000km²
94 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
61
66
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
60,502
81,681
Population aged 65+
25,253
34,241
Population aged under 15
12,659
17,257
Median age of population
49.2 yrs
48.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
41.7%
41.9%
Crude rate of total population change
-2.3 /1k
-3.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.7 /1k
4.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.6 /1k
7.8 /1k
Crude death rate
13.6 /1k
15.8 /1k
Live births
748
1,044
Deaths
1,343
2,105
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
62.7%
63.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.47
1.48
Population density (persons per km²)
32 /km²
534 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
76,789
126,409
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
18.9%
22.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
79.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
15.6%
15.5%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
723 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
954 /100k
1,123 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
228 /100k
243 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
4.1 /100k
51.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
151 /100k
254 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
499 /100k
1,250 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
24 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.74
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.40
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.64
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.37
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.60
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.156/kWh
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.049/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
1,095 m
303 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
155 days/yr
59 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
5 days/yr