NUTS-3 DE26A · Germany
Population
125,2822025
GDP
€5,844M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
83.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,326.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE26A · DE923
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Main-Spessart (Opportunity 55). Runner-up: Hameln-Pyrmont (49). Contrarian pick: Hameln-Pyrmont — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 72).
Strengths
Industrial base (98) · Labour market (84)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Connectivity (72) · Industrial base (71)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 15 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Main-Spessart
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 13) — Hameln-Pyrmont may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Main-Spessart 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
55.4
49.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
39.3
52.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
70.7
62.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
56.3
72.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
46.0
57.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
38.0
27.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.0% 5y
0.8% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.9% 5y
1.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€46,645
€39,316
Population density
94 /km²
188 /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)
€5,338M
€5,394M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€94M
€94M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,499M
€1,528M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,331M
€1,229M
GVA — construction (F)
€306M
€255M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€582M
€731M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€29,800
€27,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
41,500 PPS
34,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€46,500
€39,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€12,277M
€29,132M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,933M
€2,692M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€34,752M
€55,013M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,005M
€1,329M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€853M
€1,457M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,026M
€5,059M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€97,591
€86,946
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,093M
€1,705M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
63,280
72,450
Self-employed persons
5,290
7,080
Employment in manufacturing (C)
23,370
12,160
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
82.6%
78.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
—
7.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
3.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
69,600
75,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
4,422
4,898
Enterprise births
291
385
Enterprise deaths
325
454
3-year enterprise survival rate
2.8%
3.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.0%
3.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.9%
4.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.3%
2.0%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
34.3%
35.5%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
42.5%
39.9%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
8.8%
10.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.4%
24.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.8%
10.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
442,092
564,448
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
665 /1k
584 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,375 kt
4,082 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
738
1,217
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
589
810
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
83
44
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
76,729
90,557
Population aged 65+
31,750
39,286
Population aged under 15
16,803
20,360
Median age of population
49.3 yrs
49.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
41.4%
43.4%
Crude rate of total population change
-4.2 /1k
-2.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.7 /1k
4.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.4 /1k
8.5 /1k
Crude death rate
12.4 /1k
15.6 /1k
Live births
935
1,279
Deaths
1,558
2,350
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
63.3%
65.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.44
1.66
Population density (persons per km²)
96 /km²
189 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
121,844
129,520
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
16.5%
21.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.0 yrs
80.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
13.2%
16.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,004 /100k
1,044 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
208 /100k
246 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
14.3 /100k
28.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
103 /100k
202 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
484 /100k
966 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
39 /M
42 /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)
206 m
78 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
9 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
71 days/yr
52 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr