NUTS-3 BE251 · Belgium
Population
288,0782025
GDP
€15,597M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.2%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
668.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE251 · NL422
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Midden-Limburg (Opportunity 75). Runner-up: Arr. Brugge (69). Contrarian pick: Arr. Brugge — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 87).
Strengths
Economic base (87) · Talent & skills (82)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Midden-Limburg
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 35) — Arr. Brugge 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
68.6
75.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
62.5
78.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.5
61.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
50.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
72.3
69.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
82.3
78.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
56.0
73.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.1% 5y
2.0% 5y
Population
0.4% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.9% 5y
3.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€54,143
€51,141
Population density
431 /km²
351 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€14,118M
€11,189M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€174M
€393M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,607M
€2,465M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,356M
€1,804M
GVA — construction (F)
€883M
€659M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,085M
€2,380M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€31,200
€25,400
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
48,300 PPS
44,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€54,200
€51,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€16,710M
€11,196M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,304M
€1,560M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€29,133M
€26,730M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,902M
€860M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€268M
€136M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€4,431M
€2,091M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,939M
€2,216M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€13,235M
€10,330M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€117,030
€103,967
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€4,254M
€2,618M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
137,500
125,400
Self-employed persons
28,800
22,000
Employment in manufacturing (C)
13,000
13,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.2%
83.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.7%
6.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
134,200
129,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
26,705
Enterprise births
—
2,311
Enterprise deaths
—
1,331
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
6.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
—
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
3.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
—
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.7%
37.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
51.3%
48.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.6%
22.9%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.9%
26.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.4%
10.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.7%
98.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,847,255
2,871,198
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
512 /1k
545 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
8,466 kt
8,084 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,324
602
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
59 km/1000km²
98 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
460
247
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
24
32
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
173,229
148,541
Population aged 65+
77,434
63,406
Population aged under 15
37,415
31,845
Median age of population
48.4 yrs
48.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
44.7%
42.7%
Crude rate of total population change
2.6 /1k
5.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.7 /1k
8.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.5 /1k
8.2 /1k
Crude death rate
11.7 /1k
11.7 /1k
Live births
2,171
1,985
Deaths
3,359
2,846
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
66.3%
64.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.38
1.48
Population density (persons per km²)
441 /km²
364 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
249,156
212,002
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
9.8%
17.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.1 yrs
81.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
5.6%
14.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
634 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
849 /100k
1,066 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
249 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.3 /100k
—
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
32.4 /100k
21.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
273 /100k
227 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,446 /100k
1,159 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
43 /M
33 /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)
7 m
25 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
23 days/yr
34 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr