NUTS-3 DE40B · Germany
Population
107,7932025
GDP
€3,822M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81.6%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,226.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE40B · DEG0U
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Saalfeld-Rudolstadt (Opportunity 38). Runner-up: Oberspreewald-Lausitz (38). Contrarian pick: Oberspreewald-Lausitz — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 79).
Strengths
Freight intensity (79) · Labour market (70)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Its weakest dimension is Growth momentum (EU pctl 25) — Oberspreewald-Lausitz may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Oberspreewald-Lausitz · Manufacturing → Saalfeld-Rudolstadt · Office → Saalfeld-Rudolstadt · Residential → Saalfeld-Rudolstadt.
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
38.1
38.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
44.5
31.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
56.2
55.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
49.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
57.0
68.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
27.0
28.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
23.0
24.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.6% 5y
—
Population
0.3% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.6% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€35,459
€33,083
Population density
88 /km²
99 /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)
€3,491M
€3,025M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€60M
€64M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€947M
€1,054M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€588M
€904M
GVA — construction (F)
€330M
€190M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€637M
€383M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,000
€25,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
31,300 PPS
29,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€35,100
€32,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€23,042M
€14,609M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,607M
€3,167M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€47,281M
€42,299M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€693M
€503M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€824M
€831M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,065M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€84,082
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€936M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
47,990
43,920
Self-employed persons
4,500
4,250
Employment in manufacturing (C)
8,000
10,930
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.0%
80.5%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.3%
7.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
51,000
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
3,120
3,430
Enterprise births
165
174
Enterprise deaths
231
239
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.3%
2.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
2.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.1%
4.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
32.2%
30.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
31.8%
35.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
6.4%
8.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.9%
19.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.6%
7.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
923,257
342,426
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
584 /1k
568 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
707
871
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,716 kt
2,732 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
28 km/1000km²
32 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
656
870
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
58
44
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)
61,653
56,932
Population aged 65+
33,089
31,382
Population aged under 15
13,051
11,791
Median age of population
53.6 yrs
54.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
53.7%
55.1%
Crude rate of total population change
-5.9 /1k
-10.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.1 /1k
1.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.3 /1k
5.0 /1k
Crude death rate
16.4 /1k
16.3 /1k
Live births
573
505
Deaths
1,769
1,641
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
74.8%
75.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.42
1.35
Population density (persons per km²)
93 /km²
101 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
64,080
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
19.6%
23.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.0 yrs
80.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.7%
17.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,113 /100k
1,212 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
245 /100k
228 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
34.1 /100k
20.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
292 /100k
206 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
789 /100k
1,013 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
45 /M
46 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
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)
141 m
541 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
11 days/yr
4 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
58 days/yr
84 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr