NUTS-3 NL224 · Netherlands
Population
257,1632025
GDP
€13,579M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
84.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
763.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL224 · NL127
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zuidwest-Gelderland (Opportunity 77). Runner-up: Noord-Friesland (63). Contrarian pick: Noord-Friesland — leads the set on Digital readiness (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Freight intensity (95) · Digital readiness (94)
Red flags
Flood: 70% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Zuidwest-Gelderland
Flood: 70% of population in the 100-year floodplain. Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 25) — Noord-Friesland may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zuidwest-Gelderland 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
76.9
63.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
81.0
62.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
67.7
61.3
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
83.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
65.3
55.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
89.8
79.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
70.0
54.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.2% 5y
—
Population
0.8% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
1.2% 5y
—
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€52,802
€43,629
Population density
337 /km²
214 /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)
€12,186M
€12,920M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€672M
€461M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,542M
€2,009M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,397M
€1,270M
GVA — construction (F)
€905M
€759M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,445M
€2,266M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,500
€24,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
45,500 PPS
37,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€53,000
€43,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€23,257M
€6,262M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,035M
€616M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€50,437M
€13,205M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€959M
€972M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€278M
€300M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,919M
€3,251M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,793M
€3,881M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€11,233M
—
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€102,003
—
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,004M
—
Labour market
Employment, total persons
139,200
166,600
Self-employed persons
28,200
32,600
Employment in manufacturing (C)
12,500
12,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
86.2%
85.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.6%
7.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.3%
—
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
146,800
—
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
33,565
35,353
Enterprise births
2,667
3,044
Enterprise deaths
1,481
1,581
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.2%
6.5%
Innovation & R&D
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.7%
2.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
44.1%
38.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
53.8%
48.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
25.7%
24.1%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.0%
27.6%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
12.8%
10.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.2%
99.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
723,883
4,093,770
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
523 /1k
545 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
692
1,256
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
15,978 kt
8,441 kt
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
81 km/1000km²
63 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
269
381
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
46
51
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
162,741
207,386
Population aged 65+
52,960
73,953
Population aged under 15
41,462
48,634
Median age of population
43.7 yrs
43.7 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.5%
35.7%
Crude rate of total population change
5.9 /1k
3.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.5 /1k
5.5 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.2 /1k
8.5 /1k
Crude death rate
8.9 /1k
10.3 /1k
Live births
2,623
2,814
Deaths
2,278
3,398
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
58.0%
59.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.78
1.46
Population density (persons per km²)
365 /km²
231 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
246,870
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.0%
14.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.9 yrs
81.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.1%
14.4%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,014 /100k
1,018 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
239 /100k
Safety & crime
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
11.7 /100k
—
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
163 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
799 /100k
—
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
53 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
—
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.72
—
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.73
—
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.92
—
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.63
—
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.142/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
4 m
-1 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
2 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
30 days/yr
27 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr