NUTS-3 BE32B · Belgium
Population
403,3462025
GDP
€13,113M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
65.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
475 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE32B · DE721
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Gießen, Landkreis (Opportunity 66). Runner-up: Arr. Charleroi (60). Contrarian pick: Arr. Charleroi — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 84).
Strengths
Connectivity (84) · Energy cost (69)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 18 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Gießen, Landkreis
Its weakest dimension is Air quality (EU pctl 36) — Arr. Charleroi may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Gießen, Landkreis 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
60.1
66.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
42.3
54.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
39.1
56.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
66.7
35.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
84.3
65.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
65.0
43.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
45.4
59.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.5% 5y
0.4% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.4% 5y
12.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€32,510
€45,405
Population density
849 /km²
315 /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)
€11,869M
€11,132M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€47M
€37M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,794M
€2,036M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,208M
€1,744M
GVA — construction (F)
€691M
€478M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,506M
€2,319M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€24,300
€26,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
29,000 PPS
40,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€32,600
€45,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,772M
€10,597M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,340M
€1,976M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,931M
€25,139M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,370M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€210M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,865M
€2,636M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,965M
€3,626M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€11,129M
€10,598M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€96,361
€88,075
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,744M
€2,907M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
140,300
146,520
Self-employed persons
18,800
11,490
Employment in manufacturing (C)
12,700
19,740
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
65.6%
78.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
23.6%
—
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
9.0%
2.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
168,700
151,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
9,850
Enterprise births
—
887
Enterprise deaths
—
928
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
3.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.6%
2.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.0%
5.0%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.7%
1.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.3%
32.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
40.9%
38.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.7%
10.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.5%
22.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.6%
7.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.9%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
345,574
418,065
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
498 /1k
641 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,142 kt
7,464 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,295
1,750
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
569
652
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
75 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
3
63
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
255,855
175,795
Population aged 65+
77,848
55,971
Population aged under 15
69,643
36,652
Median age of population
40.9 yrs
41.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
30.4%
31.8%
Crude rate of total population change
5.3 /1k
1.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.1 /1k
3.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.9 /1k
8.7 /1k
Crude death rate
10.7 /1k
11.2 /1k
Live births
4,001
2,332
Deaths
4,321
2,996
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.6%
52.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.60
1.26
Population density (persons per km²)
—
315 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
433,767
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.8%
24.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.0 yrs
80.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.5%
18.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
603 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,129 /100k
1,062 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
251 /100k
236 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.5 /100k
1.1 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
242 /100k
51.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
621 /100k
269 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,931 /100k
1,342 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
42 /M
31 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.31
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.41
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.34
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.25
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.130/kWh
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.046/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
160 m
232 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
39 days/yr
64 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr