NUTS-3 DE925 · Germany
Population
267,5062025
GDP
€9,792M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
79.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,209.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DE925 · DEA43
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Herford (Opportunity 58). Runner-up: Hildesheim (51). Contrarian pick: Hildesheim — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 70).
#1Herford
Strengths
Industrial base (88) · Labour market (72)
Red flags
Long-run slide: down 17 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Herford
Long-run slide: down 17 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 25) — Hildesheim may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Hildesheim · Manufacturing → Herford · Office → Hildesheim · Residential → Herford.
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
50.7
58.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
47.3
60.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
50.5
60.9
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
32.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
61.7
66.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
57.5
36.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
26.2
35.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.2% 5y
0.7% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.2% 5y
0.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€36,605
€39,918
Population density
221 /km²
567 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 83 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€8,944M
€9,276M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€134M
€45M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,131M
€3,045M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,755M
€2,780M
GVA — construction (F)
€520M
€477M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,545M
€1,857M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€27,200
€28,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
32,500 PPS
35,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€36,500
€39,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€29,132M
€18,145M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,692M
€5,057M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€55,013M
€52,413M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,949M
€1,893M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,665M
€1,959M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€8,389M
€8,558M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€80,564
€84,285
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,827M
€1,944M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
129,650
126,830
Self-employed persons
10,850
10,760
Employment in manufacturing (C)
23,340
34,890
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
78.9%
80.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.8%
6.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.9%
3.7%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
138,600
138,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
8,238
9,396
Enterprise births
670
751
Enterprise deaths
744
812
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.6%
3.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
3.2%
1.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.5%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.0%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
35.5%
30.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
39.9%
33.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.7%
9.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
24.9%
21.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.1%
8.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
478,729
225,658
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
584 /1k
632 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,171 kt
6,194 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,241
1,890
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
464
743
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
44
61
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
5
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
166,923
158,825
Population aged 65+
65,097
59,291
Population aged under 15
35,486
36,288
Median age of population
47.6 yrs
46.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
39.0%
37.3%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.0 /1k
-0.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
3.6 /1k
3.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.1 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude death rate
14.7 /1k
12.4 /1k
Live births
2,161
2,025
Deaths
3,928
3,168
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.3%
60.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.42
1.48
Population density (persons per km²)
223 /km²
566 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
257,072
244,535
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
21.9%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.6 yrs
81.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.4%
16.9%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,044 /100k
1,001 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
246 /100k
234 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
0.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
50.7 /100k
40.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
336 /100k
203 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,130 /100k
1,100 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
42 /M
38 /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)
183 m
97 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
7 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
57 days/yr
48 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr