NUTS-3 BE232 · Belgium
Population
208,6522025
GDP
€7,705M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.2%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
78.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
352.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE232 · NL212
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zuidwest-Overijssel (Opportunity 68). Runner-up: Arr. Dendermonde (63). Contrarian pick: Arr. Dendermonde — leads the set on Talent & skills (EU pctl 91).
Strengths
Digital readiness (98) · Labour market (92)
Red flags
Flood: 26% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Strengths
Talent & skills (91) · Resilience (77)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Zuidwest-Overijssel
Flood: 26% of population in the 100-year floodplain. Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 42) — Arr. Dendermonde may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zuidwest-Overijssel 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
63.3
68.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
77.0
75.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.8
63.9
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
69.0
52.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
90.8
87.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
45.4
63.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.1% 5y
2.9% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
9.2% 5y
0.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€36,927
€49,746
Population density
592 /km²
382 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 86 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€6,974M
€7,229M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€60M
€174M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,378M
€1,220M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,253M
€1,187M
GVA — construction (F)
€682M
€417M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,260M
€1,495M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€30,800
€25,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
33,000 PPS
42,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€37,000
€50,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€20,203M
€12,713M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,558M
€1,481M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€37,875M
€29,186M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€906M
€582M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€129M
€356M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,183M
€1,797M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,411M
€1,631M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€6,513M
€6,664M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€118,780
€99,450
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,096M
€1,736M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
66,900
84,700
Self-employed persons
16,700
14,500
Employment in manufacturing (C)
10,600
8,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.7%
86.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
16.6%
8.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.2%
3.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
103,300
92,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
17,211
Enterprise births
—
1,611
Enterprise deaths
—
897
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
6.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
3.4%
—
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.7%
4.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.7%
—
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
48.8%
41.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
56.4%
51.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
20.5%
24.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
35.9%
28.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.9%
12.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.7%
99.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
83,945
454,599
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
475 /1k
529 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,698 kt
5,091 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
735
481
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
66 km/1000km²
54 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
352
297
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
37
83
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
131,245
103,187
Population aged 65+
45,252
34,612
Population aged under 15
32,155
24,128
Median age of population
44.2 yrs
44.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.5%
33.5%
Crude rate of total population change
4.4 /1k
8.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.8 /1k
8.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.7 /1k
9.4 /1k
Crude death rate
10.2 /1k
10.0 /1k
Live births
1,815
1,509
Deaths
2,115
1,605
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.0%
56.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.49
1.54
Population density (persons per km²)
614 /km²
384 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
184,994
141,259
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
12.1%
15.8%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.0 yrs
81.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
6.1%
12.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
566 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
867 /100k
1,030 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
222 /100k
258 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.0 /100k
—
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
35.1 /100k
15.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
265 /100k
137 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
842 /100k
1,136 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
38 /M
46 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
1.77
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
1.72
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
1.73
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.92
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
0.63
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.130/kWh
€0.142/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.046/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
3 m
4 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
31 days/yr
38 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr