NUTS-3 DEB38 · Germany
Population
49,5642025
GDP
€3,305M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
82.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
41.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEB38 · DE266
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Rhön-Grabfeld (Opportunity 51). Runner-up: Speyer, Kreisfreie Stadt (50). Contrarian pick: Speyer, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 94).
Strengths
Industrial base (90) · Economic base (84)
Red flags
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Rhön-Grabfeld
Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 13) — Speyer, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Speyer, Kreisfreie Stadt · Manufacturing → Rhön-Grabfeld · Office → Speyer, Kreisfreie Stadt · Residential → Speyer, Kreisfreie Stadt.
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
49.9
50.6
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
44.0
61.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
60.3
69.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
29.0
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
60.0
49.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
57.5
46.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
33.2
42.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.2% 5y
0.6% 5y
Population
0.4% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.6% 5y
0.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€66,677
€51,238
Population density
1,204 /km²
78 /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)
€3,019M
€3,715M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€2M
€74M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€733M
€1,279M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€591M
€1,160M
GVA — construction (F)
€82M
€228M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€540M
€717M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€27,700
€29,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
59,000 PPS
45,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€66,300
€51,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€20,699M
€12,277M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,472M
€2,933M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€49,098M
€34,752M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€657M
€684M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,004M
€734M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,808M
€3,498M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€82,306
€98,047
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€710M
€761M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
42,050
43,820
Self-employed persons
2,620
3,750
Employment in manufacturing (C)
5,640
12,370
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
81.3%
82.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.4%
—
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.2%
3.2%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
26,300
44,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
2,079
2,736
Enterprise births
150
193
Enterprise deaths
183
226
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.9%
3.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
5.3%
2.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.4%
3.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.1%
1.3%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.8%
34.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
41.9%
42.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.1%
8.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.1%
22.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.8%
8.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
286,962
602,155
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
621 /1k
665 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
2,604 kt
2,498 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
222
374
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
448
471
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
66
86
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
30,805
48,720
Population aged 65+
12,281
19,545
Population aged under 15
6,478
11,110
Median age of population
47.8 yrs
48.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
39.9%
40.1%
Crude rate of total population change
-6.2 /1k
-0.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-1.6 /1k
3.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.6 /1k
8.0 /1k
Crude death rate
13.2 /1k
12.1 /1k
Live births
427
637
Deaths
658
963
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.9%
62.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.54
1.54
Population density (persons per km²)
1,308 /km²
78 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
45,437
74,096
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
23.2%
16.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.2 yrs
82.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.8%
13.2%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,015 /100k
1,004 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
231 /100k
208 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
76.2 /100k
8.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
381 /100k
116 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,099 /100k
575 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
25 /M
39 /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)
107 m
329 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
20 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
46 days/yr
81 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
2 days/yr