NUTS-3 DEB3K · Germany
Population
89,9742025
GDP
€1,871M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
82.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
955.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEB3K · DEE04
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Südwestpfalz (Opportunity 45). Runner-up: Altmarkkreis Salzwedel (38). Contrarian pick: Altmarkkreis Salzwedel — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 73).
Strengths
Air quality (96) · Labour market (76)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Air quality (89) · Freight intensity (73)
Red flags
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Südwestpfalz
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Economic base (EU pctl 6) — Altmarkkreis Salzwedel may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Altmarkkreis Salzwedel · Manufacturing → Südwestpfalz · Office → Südwestpfalz · Residential → Südwestpfalz.
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
45.0
37.6
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
49.3
39.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
67.9
51.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
96.3
89.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
72.0
56.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
57.5
14.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
27.2
27.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.5% 5y
0.5% 5y
Population
1.0% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
13.2% 5y
3.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€20,798
€32,484
Population density
94 /km²
35 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 85 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€1,709M
€2,373M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€46M
€203M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€367M
€649M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€283M
€304M
GVA — construction (F)
€155M
€191M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€302M
€340M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€27,700
€24,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
18,500 PPS
28,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€20,800
€32,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€20,699M
€15,488M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€4,472M
€2,294M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€49,098M
€40,875M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€496M
€354M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€342M
€637M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€1,590M
€2,080M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€82,182
€81,692
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€402M
€522M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
23,850
33,490
Self-employed persons
3,360
3,040
Employment in manufacturing (C)
4,330
5,090
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
81.3%
78.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.4%
6.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.9%
5.2%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
45,800
38,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
3,062
2,356
Enterprise births
220
114
Enterprise deaths
259
152
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.8%
3.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
5.3%
1.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.4%
3.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.1%
0.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
36.8%
25.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
41.9%
28.9%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.1%
7.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
25.1%
16.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.8%
6.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
384,647
216,902
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
621 /1k
573 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,138 kt
3,157 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
729
1,021
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
810
1,277
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
—
26 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
52
104
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
53,637
47,586
Population aged 65+
24,871
22,219
Population aged under 15
11,466
10,175
Median age of population
51.9 yrs
52.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
46.4%
46.7%
Crude rate of total population change
-2.2 /1k
-10.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.5 /1k
0.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.6 /1k
5.4 /1k
Crude death rate
15.2 /1k
15.3 /1k
Live births
688
433
Deaths
1,373
1,230
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
67.7%
68.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.53
1.35
Population density (persons per km²)
94 /km²
35 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
76,574
72,131
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
23.2%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.2 yrs
79.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.8%
21.3%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,015 /100k
1,223 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
231 /100k
276 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.1 /100k
1.2 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
11.1 /100k
24.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
101 /100k
266 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
342 /100k
924 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
25 /M
52 /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)
312 m
59 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
11 days/yr
8 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
58 days/yr
50 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr