NUTS-3 DE725 · Germany
Population
101,1632025
GDP
€3,600M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
2.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,461.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE725 · DEG0T
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Vogelsbergkreis (Opportunity 52). Runner-up: Ilm-Kreis (44). Contrarian pick: Ilm-Kreis — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 95).
Why you might not pick Vogelsbergkreis
Its weakest dimension is Energy cost (EU pctl 36) — Ilm-Kreis may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Vogelsbergkreis · Manufacturing → Ilm-Kreis · Office → Vogelsbergkreis · Residential → Vogelsbergkreis.
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
52.3
44.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
57.0
35.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
61.6
50.6
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
66.0
68.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
43.0
28.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
50.6
47.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.5% 5y
—
Population
0.9% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.6% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€35,586
€36,986
Population density
69 /km²
133 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 82 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€3,288M
€3,603M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€78M
€92M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€854M
€1,383M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€589M
€1,289M
GVA — construction (F)
€220M
€178M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€553M
€543M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,600
€25,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
31,600 PPS
32,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€35,500
€36,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€10,597M
€14,609M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,976M
€3,167M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€25,139M
€42,299M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€760M
€557M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€823M
€850M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,130M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€81,636
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€859M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
46,690
51,380
Self-employed persons
4,680
4,490
Employment in manufacturing (C)
9,250
16,210
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
78.7%
80.5%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
—
7.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
2.7%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
52,200
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
3,613
3,481
Enterprise births
281
188
Enterprise deaths
294
249
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.4%
2.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.6%
2.6%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.0%
4.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.4%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
32.5%
30.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
38.2%
35.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.6%
8.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
22.4%
19.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.3%
7.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
408,007
369,211
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
641 /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.
1,213
641
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,738 kt
3,755 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
1,199
601
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
32 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
82
27
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)
60,826
64,172
Population aged 65+
27,113
29,398
Population aged under 15
13,224
13,087
Median age of population
50.5 yrs
49.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
44.6%
45.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.3 /1k
-3.2 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.0 /1k
6.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.6 /1k
5.1 /1k
Crude death rate
13.9 /1k
14.5 /1k
Live births
773
541
Deaths
1,411
1,548
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
66.3%
66.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.59
1.14
Population density (persons per km²)
70 /km²
134 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
92,989
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.6%
23.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.6 yrs
80.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
18.4%
17.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,062 /100k
1,212 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
236 /100k
228 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.0 /100k
0.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
18.7 /100k
22.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
162 /100k
520 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
623 /100k
1,195 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
31 /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)
541 m
443 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
3 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
83 days/yr
76 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
2 days/yr