NUTS-3 DE266 · Germany
Population
79,3752025
GDP
€4,067M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
83.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,021.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE266 · DEC02
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Rhön-Grabfeld (Opportunity 51). Runner-up: Merzig-Wadern (45). Contrarian pick: Merzig-Wadern — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 76).
Strengths
Industrial base (90) · Economic base (84)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Connectivity (76) · Resilience (65)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 16 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Rhön-Grabfeld
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 13) — Merzig-Wadern may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Rhön-Grabfeld 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
50.6
44.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
61.0
65.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
69.1
49.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
49.0
75.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
46.0
24.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
42.2
39.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.6% 5y
0.2% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
1.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.6% 5y
4.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€51,238
€31,211
Population density
78 /km²
194 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 81 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€3,715M
€3,101M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€74M
€17M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,279M
€732M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,160M
€490M
GVA — construction (F)
€228M
€189M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€717M
€695M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€29,800
€25,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
45,700 PPS
27,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€51,300
€31,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€12,277M
€8,110M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,933M
€1,529M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€34,752M
€23,975M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€684M
€729M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€734M
€740M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,498M
€2,819M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€98,047
€82,500
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€761M
€660M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
43,820
43,270
Self-employed persons
3,750
3,470
Employment in manufacturing (C)
12,370
6,730
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
82.6%
77.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.2%
4.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
44,200
55,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
2,736
3,284
Enterprise births
193
268
Enterprise deaths
226
318
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.3%
3.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.0%
1.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
4.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.3%
1.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
34.3%
28.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
42.5%
29.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
8.8%
9.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.4%
19.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.8%
7.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
602,155
367,490
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
665 /1k
646 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
374
859
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,498 kt
2,654 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
471
790
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
94 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
86
34
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
48,720
68,018
Population aged 65+
19,545
27,013
Population aged under 15
11,110
13,748
Median age of population
48.1 yrs
48.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
40.1%
39.7%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.7 /1k
-5.1 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.4 /1k
1.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.0 /1k
6.5 /1k
Crude death rate
12.1 /1k
13.4 /1k
Live births
637
706
Deaths
963
1,460
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
62.9%
59.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.54
1.20
Population density (persons per km²)
78 /km²
197 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
74,096
95,777
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
16.5%
22.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.0 yrs
79.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
13.2%
15.5%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,004 /100k
1,123 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
208 /100k
243 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
8.8 /100k
13.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
116 /100k
162 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
575 /100k
777 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
39 /M
24 /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)
329 m
251 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
81 days/yr
55 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr