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 · DEA47
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Paderborn (Opportunity 64). 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 Paderborn
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 25) — Arr. Charleroi may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Paderborn 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
64.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
42.3
65.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
39.1
57.2
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
66.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
84.3
79.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
65.0
36.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
45.4
50.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.5% 5y
0.9% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.4% 5y
1.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€32,510
€44,718
Population density
849 /km²
253 /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
€12,904M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€47M
€189M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,794M
€3,369M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,208M
€2,747M
GVA — construction (F)
€691M
€725M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,506M
€2,609M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€24,300
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
29,000 PPS
40,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€32,600
€44,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,772M
€18,145M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,340M
€5,057M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€23,931M
€52,413M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,370M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€210M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,865M
€2,861M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,965M
€3,151M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€11,129M
€11,906M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€96,361
€85,386
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,744M
€2,705M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
140,300
174,170
Self-employed persons
18,800
13,450
Employment in manufacturing (C)
12,700
33,660
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
65.6%
80.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
23.6%
6.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
9.0%
3.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
168,700
178,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
11,560
Enterprise births
—
908
Enterprise deaths
—
878
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
4.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.6%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.0%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.7%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.3%
30.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
40.9%
33.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.7%
9.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
28.5%
21.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.6%
8.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.9%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
345,574
699,566
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
498 /1k
632 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,142 kt
11,464 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
1,831
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
569
580
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
12
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
255,855
204,634
Population aged 65+
77,848
64,877
Population aged under 15
69,643
46,401
Median age of population
40.9 yrs
43.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
30.4%
31.7%
Crude rate of total population change
5.3 /1k
1.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.1 /1k
2.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.9 /1k
9.0 /1k
Crude death rate
10.7 /1k
10.3 /1k
Live births
4,001
2,852
Deaths
4,321
3,253
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.6%
54.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.60
1.44
Population density (persons per km²)
—
255 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
320,140
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.8%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.0 yrs
81.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.5%
16.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
603 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,129 /100k
1,001 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
251 /100k
234 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.5 /100k
0.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
242 /100k
44.0 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
621 /100k
229 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,931 /100k
1,373 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
42 /M
38 /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
197 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
39 days/yr
48 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr