NUTS-3 DEF05 · Germany
Population
133,4602025
GDP
€6,086M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,420.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEF05 · DEE07
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Dithmarschen (Opportunity 47). Runner-up: Börde (43). Contrarian pick: Börde — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 100).
#2Börde
Strengths
Freight intensity (100) · Industrial base (80)
Red flags
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Dithmarschen
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 18) — Börde may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Dithmarschen 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
46.7
43.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
40.3
30.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
55.7
42.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
53.3
45.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
35.5
14.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
42.2
31.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.1% 5y
0.4% 5y
Population
0.0% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.7% 5y
7.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€45,602
€36,663
Population density
94 /km²
71 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 84 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€5,559M
€5,624M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€248M
€274M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,985M
€1,883M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,149M
€1,458M
GVA — construction (F)
€319M
€330M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€869M
€1,344M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,800
€24,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
40,700 PPS
32,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€45,700
€36,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€27,063M
€15,488M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,460M
€2,294M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€61,661M
€40,875M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€970M
€796M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,168M
€997M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,041M
€4,930M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€102,533
€87,885
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,367M
€1,238M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
63,660
73,780
Self-employed persons
7,030
5,500
Employment in manufacturing (C)
7,340
17,140
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.3%
78.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.0%
6.7%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.7%
4.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
68,200
81,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
5,348
4,626
Enterprise births
461
301
Enterprise deaths
433
378
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.6%
2.7%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
1.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.0%
3.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
0.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
31.8%
25.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
32.4%
28.9%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
7.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.5%
16.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.6%
6.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,011,217
320,448
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
593 /1k
573 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,081 kt
16,999 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,081
921
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
35 km/1000km²
26 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
810
549
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
82
107
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
81,190
100,986
Population aged 65+
35,084
45,060
Population aged under 15
17,186
21,878
Median age of population
50.2 yrs
50.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
43.2%
44.6%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.4 /1k
-4.0 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
7.3 /1k
4.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.7 /1k
5.4 /1k
Crude death rate
14.4 /1k
14.2 /1k
Live births
899
912
Deaths
1,925
2,392
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
64.4%
66.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.33
1.35
Population density (persons per km²)
96 /km²
71 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
117,160
143,521
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.9%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.8 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
251 /100k
276 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.8 /100k
0.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
30.7 /100k
34.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
283 /100k
310 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,123 /100k
881 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
29 /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)
1 m
113 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
3 days/yr
7 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
47 days/yr
58 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr