NUTS-3 DE721 · Germany
Population
268,4182025
GDP
€12,187M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
2.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
852.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE721 · DEA32
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Gießen, Landkreis (Opportunity 66). Runner-up: Gelsenkirchen, Kreisfreie Stadt (61). Contrarian pick: Gelsenkirchen, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 70).
Why you might not pick Gießen, Landkreis
Its weakest dimension is Air quality (EU pctl 36) — Gelsenkirchen, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Gießen, Landkreis 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
66.3
61.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
54.3
53.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
56.1
44.5
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
35.7
19.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
65.7
70.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
43.0
33.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
59.0
42.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.4% 5y
0.9% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
12.6% 5y
14.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€45,405
€38,366
Population density
315 /km²
2,610 /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)
€11,132M
€9,389M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€37M
€6M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,036M
€2,581M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,744M
€1,886M
GVA — construction (F)
€478M
€457M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€2,319M
€1,456M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,600
€27,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
40,600 PPS
34,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€45,600
€38,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€10,597M
€20,727M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,976M
€2,530M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€25,139M
€59,763M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,636M
€2,097M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,626M
€2,792M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€10,598M
€8,640M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€88,075
€91,827
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,907M
€1,962M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
146,520
117,850
Self-employed persons
11,490
7,940
Employment in manufacturing (C)
19,740
9,940
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
78.7%
79.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
—
4.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
2.6%
3.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
151,000
144,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
9,850
6,830
Enterprise births
887
674
Enterprise deaths
928
709
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.9%
3.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.6%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.0%
3.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
32.5%
30.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
38.2%
35.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.6%
8.7%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.4%
20.6%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.3%
7.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
418,065
308,463
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
641 /1k
590 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
7,464 kt
7,391 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,750
969
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
652
362
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
63
38
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
175,795
170,149
Population aged 65+
55,971
54,700
Population aged under 15
36,652
43,081
Median age of population
41.9 yrs
42.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.8%
32.1%
Crude rate of total population change
1.0 /1k
2.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.5 /1k
5.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.7 /1k
10.0 /1k
Crude death rate
11.2 /1k
12.6 /1k
Live births
2,332
2,669
Deaths
2,996
3,379
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
52.7%
57.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.26
1.66
Population density (persons per km²)
315 /km²
2,549 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
433,767
284,017
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.6%
24.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.6 yrs
80.8 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
18.4%
18.3%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,062 /100k
1,053 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
236 /100k
246 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.1 /100k
0.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
51.5 /100k
88.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
269 /100k
528 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,342 /100k
2,076 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
31 /M
35 /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)
232 m
68 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
64 days/yr
40 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr