NUTS-3 BE323 · Belgium
Population
262,1772025
GDP
€8,924M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
65.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
595.3 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE323 · NL325
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zaanstreek (Opportunity 69). Runner-up: Arr. Mons (57). Contrarian pick: Arr. Mons — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 69).
Strengths
Demographic outlook (77) · Connectivity (71)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Zaanstreek
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 25) — Arr. Mons may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zaanstreek 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
56.6
68.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
44.5
79.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
36.5
67.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
44.7
46.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
70.7
72.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
65.0
96.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
53.8
67.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.0% 5y
2.9% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.4% 5y
1.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€34,038
€41,470
Population density
440 /km²
1,443 /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)
€8,078M
€6,671M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€34M
€23M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€572M
€1,292M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€372M
€1,254M
GVA — construction (F)
€260M
€541M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,053M
€1,431M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€24,300
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
30,400 PPS
35,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€34,100
€41,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,772M
€41,901M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,340M
€3,039M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,931M
€104,822M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€934M
€700M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€744M
€92M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,810M
€1,540M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,350M
€1,459M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€7,574M
€6,373M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€103,739
€98,897
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,867M
€1,399M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
88,700
78,600
Self-employed persons
13,300
16,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
5,000
7,900
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
65.6%
86.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
23.6%
8.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.9%
3.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
110,900
104,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
23,450
Enterprise births
—
2,496
Enterprise deaths
—
1,192
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
7.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.6%
—
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.0%
6.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.7%
—
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.3%
52.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
40.9%
62.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.7%
27.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.5%
36.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.6%
14.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.9%
99.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
209,056
471,112
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
498 /1k
428 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,771 kt
7,557 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,429
412
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
75 km/1000km²
108 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
545
230
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
39
19
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
168,086
116,259
Population aged 65+
52,223
34,556
Population aged under 15
41,868
28,434
Median age of population
42.0 yrs
42.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.1%
29.7%
Crude rate of total population change
3.8 /1k
7.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.9 /1k
7.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.8 /1k
9.8 /1k
Crude death rate
10.8 /1k
9.5 /1k
Live births
2,293
1,757
Deaths
2,829
1,692
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.0%
54.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.41
1.52
Population density (persons per km²)
448 /km²
1,464 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
278,243
176,249
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.8%
16.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.0 yrs
82.1 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.5%
14.8%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
603 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,129 /100k
990 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
251 /100k
244 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
3.8 /100k
—
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
183 /100k
45.0 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
423 /100k
135 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,401 /100k
1,230 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
42 /M
27 /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)
29 m
0 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
2 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
34 days/yr
26 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr