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 · FRI22
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arr. Veurne (Opportunity 50). Runner-up: Creuse (33). Contrarian pick: Creuse — leads the set on Air quality (EU pctl 90).
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) — Creuse may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Arr. Veurne 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
49.7
33.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
51.0
57.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
64.0
54.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
64.7
90.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
69.7
26.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
82.3
71.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
52.8
42.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.1% 5y
1.0% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.8% 5y
2.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€48,701
€25,656
Population density
217 /km²
21 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
8,028
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
269
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€2,706M
€2,630M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€76M
€152M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€302M
€295M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€279M
€245M
GVA — construction (F)
€194M
€152M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€542M
€390M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€31,200
€23,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
43,200 PPS
23,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€48,500
€25,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€16,710M
€5,305M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,304M
€487M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€29,133M
€11,918M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€501M
€552M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€12M
€24M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€926M
€700M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€666M
€942M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,537M
€2,632M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€118,161
€71,175
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€816M
€685M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
26,100
42,300
Self-employed persons
6,200
8,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
2,800
3,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
76.2%
76.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.7%
15.0%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.2%
6.2%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
25,200
47,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
7,137
Enterprise births
—
805
Enterprise deaths
—
706
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
5.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.7%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
2.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
0.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
42.7%
41.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
51.3%
51.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
18.6%
16.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.9%
27.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.4%
8.6%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.7%
94.9%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
3,206,472
351,633
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.
305
312
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,859 kt
4,111 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
59 km/1000km²
16 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
497
271
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
24
92
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
62,927
Population aged 65+
22,504
37,238
Population aged under 15
6,324
14,991
Median age of population
57.2 yrs
53.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
69.1%
59.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-8.5 /1k
-2.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.8 /1k
8.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.7 /1k
6.2 /1k
Crude death rate
15.0 /1k
17.3 /1k
Live births
353
713
Deaths
927
1,990
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
88.5%
83.0%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.43
1.54
Population density (persons per km²)
223 /km²
21 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
45,567
95,127
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
9.8%
22.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.1 yrs
82.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
5.6%
17.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
634 /100k
742 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
849 /100k
854 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
205 /100k
222 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.6 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
19.4 /100k
20.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
228 /100k
335 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,223 /100k
928 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
43 /M
59 /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)
0 m
480 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
11 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
25 days/yr
39 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
4 days/yr