NUTS-3 BE258 · Belgium
Population
61,3922025
GDP
€2,990M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.2%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
282.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE258 · FI1DA
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Veurne (Opportunity 50). Runner-up: Etelä-Savo (27). Contrarian pick: Etelä-Savo — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 99).
Strengths
Talent & skills (82) · Economic base (80)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Arr. Veurne
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 4) — Etelä-Savo may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Etelä-Savo · Manufacturing → Etelä-Savo · Office → Arr. Veurne · Residential → Arr. Veurne.
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
49.7
26.6
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
51.0
60.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.0
56.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
64.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
69.7
37.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
82.3
63.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
52.8
15.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.1% 5y
—
Population
0.1% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.8% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€48,701
€38,628
Population density
217 /km²
8 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 90 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€2,706M
€4,371M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€76M
€510M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€302M
€801M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€279M
€670M
GVA — construction (F)
€194M
€191M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€542M
€586M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€31,200
€21,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
43,200 PPS
32,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€48,500
€38,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€16,710M
€13,860M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,304M
€3,205M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€29,133M
€24,815M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€501M
€730M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€12M
€52M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€926M
€1,047M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€666M
€1,235M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,537M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€118,161
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€816M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
26,100
55,110
Self-employed persons
6,200
6,870
Employment in manufacturing (C)
2,800
7,790
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.2%
77.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.7%
20.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.2%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
25,200
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
9,366
Enterprise births
—
672
Enterprise deaths
—
727
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
4.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
2.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
4.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
1.9%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.7%
39.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
51.3%
34.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.6%
26.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.9%
26.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.4%
8.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.7%
97.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,206,472
630,122
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
512 /1k
727 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
305
1,082
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,859 kt
8,703 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
59 km/1000km²
1 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
497
836
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
24
89
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)
32,564
70,613
Population aged 65+
22,504
43,892
Population aged under 15
6,324
14,871
Median age of population
57.2 yrs
54.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
69.1%
62.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-8.5 /1k
-4.1 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.8 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.7 /1k
5.0 /1k
Crude death rate
15.0 /1k
15.5 /1k
Live births
353
648
Deaths
927
2,011
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
88.5%
83.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.43
1.15
Population density (persons per km²)
223 /km²
12 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
45,567
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
9.8%
17.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.1 yrs
81.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
5.6%
15.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
634 /100k
283 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
849 /100k
976 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
197 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.6 /100k
0.8 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
19.4 /100k
28.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
228 /100k
169 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,223 /100k
1,487 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
43 /M
38 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
—
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.130/kWh
€0.067/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.046/kWh
€0.065/kWh
Housing market
Dwelling price per m² — old housing-company dwellings (Statistics Finland)
—
€1,108/m²
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
0 m
96 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
1 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
25 days/yr
157 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
1 days/yr