NUTS-3 BE255 · Belgium
Population
161,2842025
GDP
€7,164M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.2%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
292.3 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE255 · FRJ24
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Oostende (Opportunity 62). Runner-up: Gers (39). Contrarian pick: Gers — leads the set on Air quality (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Talent & skills (82) · Connectivity (72)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Arr. Oostende
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 4) — Gers may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Arr. Oostende 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
61.6
38.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
68.0
64.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
63.0
60.9
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
97.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
72.3
29.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
82.3
91.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
64.4
31.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.7% 5y
1.4% 5y
Population
0.4% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.9% 5y
3.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€44,419
€26,503
Population density
552 /km²
31 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
4,511
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
309
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€6,484M
€4,543M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€55M
€262M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,478M
€554M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€682M
€458M
GVA — construction (F)
€440M
€312M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,280M
€697M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€31,200
€23,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
39,700 PPS
24,200 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€44,500
€26,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€16,710M
€27,134M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,304M
€3,274M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€29,133M
€63,709M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,030M
€688M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€51M
€34M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,764M
€1,172M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,468M
€1,546M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€6,079M
€4,602M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€137,114
€70,624
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,954M
€1,137M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
53,900
73,600
Self-employed persons
11,800
14,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
4,900
6,100
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.2%
76.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.7%
15.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
6.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
72,500
83,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
16,386
Enterprise births
—
1,866
Enterprise deaths
—
1,558
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
5.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
4.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
7.1%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
2.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.7%
47.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
51.3%
56.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.6%
18.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.9%
33.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.4%
14.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.7%
95.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,456,234
783,681
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
512 /1k
—
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
580
309
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,850 kt
3,281 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
59 km/1000km²
14 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
360
161
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
4
78
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
93,568
108,056
Population aged 65+
47,025
57,183
Population aged under 15
20,691
27,203
Median age of population
50.5 yrs
51.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
50.3%
52.9%
Crude rate of total population change
5.3 /1k
-0.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
11.3 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.5 /1k
6.5 /1k
Crude death rate
13.5 /1k
13.4 /1k
Live births
1,203
1,243
Deaths
2,164
2,587
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
72.4%
78.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.52
1.50
Population density (persons per km²)
551 /km²
31 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
130,417
159,593
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
9.8%
23.3%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.1 yrs
83.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
5.6%
18.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
634 /100k
564 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
849 /100k
780 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
211 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.6 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
59.8 /100k
13.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
263 /100k
562 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,849 /100k
984 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
43 /M
60 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
1.46
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
1.27
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
1.02
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.39
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
0.02
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.130/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.046/kWh
€0.053/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
2 m
201 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
3 days/yr
26 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
20 days/yr
18 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr