NUTS-3 DEA55 · Germany
Population
155,8512025
GDP
€5,227M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
77.5%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
50.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEA55 · DE94B
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Grafschaft Bentheim (Opportunity 62). Runner-up: Herne, Kreisfreie Stadt (57). Contrarian pick: Herne, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Connectivity (EU pctl 74).
Why you might not pick Grafschaft Bentheim
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 30) — Herne, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Grafschaft Bentheim 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
57.1
61.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
39.5
83.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
45.8
56.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
74.3
67.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
28.0
34.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.6
68.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.5% 5y
0.4% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
1.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.8% 5y
8.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€33,542
€41,477
Population density
3,070 /km²
147 /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)
€4,775M
€5,476M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€1M
€342M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,052M
€1,466M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€480M
€973M
GVA — construction (F)
€294M
€483M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€988M
€1,024M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,700
€27,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
29,900 PPS
37,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€33,500
€41,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€29,556M
€31,047M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,134M
€2,687M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€86,336M
€59,034M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€912M
€1,103M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,528M
€1,058M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€4,401M
€4,989M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€83,536
€84,738
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,024M
€1,614M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
66,100
74,870
Self-employed persons
4,760
5,560
Employment in manufacturing (C)
5,820
13,920
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
77.4%
81.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.5%
5.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.7%
2.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
76,400
78,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
3,984
4,862
Enterprise births
425
418
Enterprise deaths
412
397
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.1%
3.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.8%
0.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
3.2%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
1.1%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
27.3%
30.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
32.4%
38.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.7%
8.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.7%
20.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.2%
7.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
61,680
692,381
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
603 /1k
623 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
601
815
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,139 kt
4,234 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
386
564
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
28
53
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
6
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
98,900
91,235
Population aged 65+
34,436
31,514
Population aged under 15
22,515
21,794
Median age of population
44.9 yrs
45.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.8%
34.5%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.9 /1k
2.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.0 /1k
4.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.9 /1k
8.8 /1k
Crude death rate
14.9 /1k
11.0 /1k
Live births
1,392
1,267
Deaths
2,324
1,583
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.6%
58.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.49
1.56
Population density (persons per km²)
3,059 /km²
147 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
152,420
148,488
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.6%
26.3%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.1 yrs
80.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
19.6%
20.8%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,106 /100k
1,034 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
256 /100k
236 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
78.1 /100k
20.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
592 /100k
160 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,017 /100k
824 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
23 /M
54 /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)
66 m
22 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
40 days/yr
42 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr