NUTS-3 BE332 · Belgium
Population
637,2202025
GDP
€26,435M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7.2%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
66%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
797.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BE332 · DEA2D
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Städteregion Aachen (Opportunity 75). Runner-up: Arr. Liège (69). Contrarian pick: Arr. Liège — leads the set on Talent & skills (EU pctl 79).
Strengths
Connectivity (80) · Economic base (73)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Städteregion Aachen
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 14) — Arr. Liège may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Städteregion Aachen · Manufacturing → Städteregion Aachen · Office → Arr. Liège · Residential → Arr. Liège.
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
69.3
75.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
50.5
67.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
46.3
62.8
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
66.3
63.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
78.0
80.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
79.3
70.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
51.0
55.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.8% 5y
0.3% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.9% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.6% 5y
2.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€41,485
€44,781
Population density
799 /km²
819 /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)
€23,928M
€23,822M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€54M
€64M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,703M
€5,828M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,839M
€4,262M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,352M
€893M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,916M
€4,782M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,600
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
37,000 PPS
40,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€41,600
€44,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,523M
€34,670M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€941M
€6,008M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€22,375M
€125,036M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€2,533M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€677M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€6,186M
€5,457M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€7,716M
€6,799M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€22,504M
€22,284M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€107,319
€89,347
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€5,469M
€3,981M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
254,100
308,710
Self-employed persons
34,900
23,710
Employment in manufacturing (C)
21,400
39,970
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
65.6%
78.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
22.8%
6.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
7.2%
3.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
266,700
314,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
21,374
Enterprise births
—
1,817
Enterprise deaths
—
1,881
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
4.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.5%
4.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
6.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.5%
2.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.8%
38.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
47.0%
46.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
15.2%
11.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
29.9%
27.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.1%
10.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.1%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
798,850
1,491,102
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
497 /1k
585 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,014 kt
10,070 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
3,917
4,007
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
69 km/1000km²
—
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
615
688
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
35
37
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
406,187
383,763
Population aged 65+
127,493
123,756
Population aged under 15
103,540
74,891
Median age of population
41.2 yrs
42.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.4%
32.2%
Crude rate of total population change
5.4 /1k
-0.1 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.7 /1k
3.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.1 /1k
7.8 /1k
Crude death rate
10.5 /1k
11.1 /1k
Live births
5,805
4,537
Deaths
6,671
6,445
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.9%
51.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.40
1.21
Population density (persons per km²)
809 /km²
830 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
656,992
518,459
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
19.6%
23.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.7 yrs
81.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.6%
17.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
558 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,052 /100k
1,020 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
236 /100k
240 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.6 /100k
1.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
261 /100k
63.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
736 /100k
479 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,373 /100k
1,673 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
51 /M
27 /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)
135 m
236 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
42 days/yr
47 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr