NUTS-3 NL225 · Netherlands
Population
407,9572025
GDP
€18,324M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
84.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,564.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL225 · ITI32
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Achterhoek (Opportunity 76). Runner-up: Ancona (48). Contrarian pick: Ancona — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 73).
Strengths
Digital readiness (94) · Labour market (92)
Red flags
Flood: 21% of population in the 100-year floodplain
#2Ancona
Strengths
Industrial base (73) · Cost advantage (64)
Red flags
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 20 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Achterhoek
Flood: 21% of population in the 100-year floodplain. Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 37) — Ancona may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Achterhoek 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
76.4
47.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
74.5
47.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
67.2
38.0
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
68.5
12.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
61.0
25.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
89.8
24.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
63.4
38.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.1% 5y
2.0% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.6% 5y
9.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€44,917
€35,136
Population density
261 /km²
235 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€16,445M
€14,567M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€576M
€173M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,581M
€3,638M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€3,395M
€3,406M
GVA — construction (F)
€971M
€835M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,489M
€3,283M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,500
€21,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
38,600 PPS
36,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€45,000
€35,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€23,257M
€11,341M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,035M
€1,925M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€50,437M
€19,218M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,445M
€1,630M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€179M
€360M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,144M
€3,574M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,584M
€3,061M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€15,159M
€14,708M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€90,812
€76,266
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€4,054M
€3,783M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
211,000
218,800
Self-employed persons
39,900
47,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
28,500
46,100
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
86.2%
71.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
7.6%
21.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.4%
5.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
222,500
214,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
44,580
35,910
Enterprise births
3,295
2,380
Enterprise deaths
1,984
2,010
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.8%
3.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
0.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.7%
2.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
1.0%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
44.1%
24.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
53.8%
32.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
25.7%
10.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
30.0%
17.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
12.8%
5.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.2%
94.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,158,141
3,428,287
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
523 /1k
718 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
12,640 kt
8,730 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,033
11
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
253
2
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
81 km/1000km²
20 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
53
72
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
5
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
246,554
287,269
Population aged 65+
106,383
122,253
Population aged under 15
55,020
51,981
Median age of population
49.3 yrs
50.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
43.1%
42.6%
Crude rate of total population change
2.9 /1k
-0.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.6 /1k
5.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.9 /1k
5.5 /1k
Crude death rate
11.6 /1k
11.6 /1k
Live births
3,219
2,524
Deaths
4,725
5,340
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
65.5%
60.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.59
1.10
Population density (persons per km²)
262 /km²
236 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
354,761
372,307
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
14.0%
13.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.9 yrs
84.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.1%
12.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
284 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,014 /100k
865 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
199 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
0.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
10.8 /100k
22.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
122 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
703 /100k
562 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
50 /M
49 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.72
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.73
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.92
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.63
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
17 m
79 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
53 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
41 days/yr
6 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
9 days/yr