NUTS-3 CH023 · Switzerland
Population
289,7922025
GDP
€21,622M2022
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
83.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
793 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
CH023 · DE118
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Heilbronn, Landkreis (Opportunity 78). Runner-up: Solothurn (73). Contrarian pick: Solothurn — leads the set on Governance (EU pctl 96).
Strengths
Economic base (96) · Industrial base (96)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Heilbronn, Landkreis
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 6) — Solothurn may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Solothurn · Manufacturing → Heilbronn, Landkreis · Office → Solothurn · Residential → Heilbronn, Landkreis.
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
72.6
77.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
80.5
54.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
73.5
77.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
67.7
64.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
77.5
60.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
50.0
57.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.9% 5y
2.4% 5y
Population
1.0% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.4% 5y
3.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€74,612
€77,107
Population density
365 /km²
321 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 85 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€20,310M
€24,924M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€86M
€132M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€4,881M
€10,028M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
—
€9,393M
GVA — construction (F)
—
€732M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
—
€6,946M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
—
€30,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
—
69,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
—
€77,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
—
€60,881M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
—
€22,211M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
—
€139,588M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€4,913M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
—
€5,282M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,331M
€1,804M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€20,006M
€23,651M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€158,470
€154,827
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€6,379M
€6,036M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
—
185,550
Self-employed persons
—
14,280
Employment in manufacturing (C)
—
63,430
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
85.6%
82.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
8.5%
6.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.5%
3.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
163,900
199,600
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
—
12,421
Enterprise births
—
1,022
Enterprise deaths
—
1,059
3-year enterprise survival rate
—
4.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
7.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
7.1%
5.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
4.9%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
41.3%
38.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
45.4%
43.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
26.3%
9.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.2%
26.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.8%
11.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.0%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
546,585
880,413
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
556 /1k
636 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,615 kt
14,024 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,242
1,750
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
429
495
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
40 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
40
57
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)
185,842
225,816
Population aged 65+
61,566
73,890
Population aged under 15
42,384
54,171
Median age of population
44.4 yrs
44.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.1%
32.7%
Crude rate of total population change
10.2 /1k
0.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
11.0 /1k
2.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.3 /1k
8.8 /1k
Crude death rate
9.1 /1k
10.2 /1k
Live births
2,406
3,110
Deaths
2,629
3,603
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.9%
56.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.34
1.50
Population density (persons per km²)
367 /km²
322 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
321,845
347,560
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
19.1%
17.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.8 yrs
82.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.1%
12.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
378 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
825 /100k
938 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
193 /100k
199 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
16.7 /100k
13.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
849 /100k
100 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,596 /100k
610 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
30 /M
27 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
2.03
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.76
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
2.09
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
1.03
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
—
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
—
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
487 m
277 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
12 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
84 days/yr
64 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
9 days/yr
3 days/yr