NUTS-3 DE146 · Germany
Population
207,4152025
GDP
€13,001M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
2.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
84.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,407.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE146 · DE717
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Biberach (Opportunity 72). Runner-up: Groß-Gerau (67). Contrarian pick: Groß-Gerau — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 92).
Strengths
Freight intensity (92) · Industrial base (92)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Flood: 36% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Biberach
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 12) — Groß-Gerau may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Biberach 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
71.8
66.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
54.5
32.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
76.2
64.0
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
74.7
52.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
75.7
80.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
70.5
62.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
56.8
37.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.9% 5y
2.6% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.7% 5y
1.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€62,681
€55,574
Population density
147 /km²
593 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 84 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€11,875M
€13,620M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€134M
€43M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€6,322M
€4,796M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,920M
€4,568M
GVA — construction (F)
€881M
€628M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,170M
€3,713M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€30,000
€30,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
56,300 PPS
49,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€63,100
€55,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€25,503M
€49,287M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€7,289M
€7,586M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€52,964M
€137,102M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,856M
€2,734M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,513M
€1,707M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€11,261M
€13,275M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€115,317
€125,930
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,324M
€2,903M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
118,880
126,020
Self-employed persons
8,880
10,250
Employment in manufacturing (C)
45,200
18,710
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
83.3%
78.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
—
6.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
2.9%
3.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
117,700
140,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
7,315
9,276
Enterprise births
612
994
Enterprise deaths
587
913
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.9%
4.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
3.9%
3.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.9%
7.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.5%
2.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
40.3%
37.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
47.4%
43.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.9%
10.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
27.6%
26.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
11.4%
9.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
483,092
1,063,410
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
639 /1k
612 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,924 kt
14,941 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,459
1,272
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
703
474
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
41
16
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)
132,054
173,766
Population aged 65+
42,551
53,184
Population aged under 15
32,810
41,360
Median age of population
43.7 yrs
43.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.2%
30.6%
Crude rate of total population change
3.1 /1k
1.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.1 /1k
3.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.5 /1k
9.2 /1k
Crude death rate
9.6 /1k
10.8 /1k
Live births
1,971
2,471
Deaths
1,982
2,888
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.1%
54.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.61
1.55
Population density (persons per km²)
147 /km²
607 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
216,860
295,501
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
16.6%
21.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.5 yrs
82.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.4%
16.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
938 /100k
974 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
195 /100k
229 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.4 /100k
1.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
9.7 /100k
38.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
76.9 /100k
251 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
549 /100k
851 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
39 /M
27 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.53
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.161/kWh
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.055/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
614 m
85 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
17 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
96 days/yr
51 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
2 days/yr