NUTS-3 NL350 · Netherlands
Population
1,409,1442025
GDP
€106,260M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
85.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,562.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL350 · CZ010
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Utrecht (Opportunity 83). Runner-up: Hlavní město Praha (73). Contrarian pick: Hlavní město Praha — leads the set on Labour market (EU pctl 100).
Strengths
Labour market (100) · Economic base (98)
Red flags
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Utrecht
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 9) — Hlavní město Praha may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Utrecht 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
83.2
73.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
81.3
51.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
73.4
61.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
42.3
14.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
68.0
57.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
98.0
95.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
62.4
78.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
—
2.4% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
1.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
—
4.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€75,408
€61,948
Population density
902 /km²
2,816 /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)
€95,362M
€79,047M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€481M
€320M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€6,486M
€8,577M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,601M
€4,860M
GVA — construction (F)
€4,443M
€3,949M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€23,401M
€27,965M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,600
€21,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
64,900 PPS
76,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€75,600
€62,400
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€18,985M
€25,903M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,324M
€1,009M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€47,561M
€35,907M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€6,857M
€8,635M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€8,198M
€13,152M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€30,622M
€26,419M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€23,003M
€11,817M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
—
€66,058M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
—
€88,842
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
—
€27,887M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
903,100
1,042,060
Self-employed persons
135,600
224,820
Employment in manufacturing (C)
40,000
64,630
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
87.6%
80.5%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.5%
8.0%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
—
1.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
—
735,700
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
200,842
326,833
Enterprise births
18,550
33,548
Enterprise deaths
9,529
22,057
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.7%
5.1%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
2.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
8.1%
12.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
4.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
58.2%
54.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
66.2%
61.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
28.3%
20.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
40.0%
41.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
16.1%
17.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.6%
98.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,626,106
18,993,211
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
560 /1k
761 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
29,282 kt
26,488 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
3,535
1,448
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
124 km/1000km²
82 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
251
104
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
37
15
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
920,570
925,154
Population aged 65+
259,611
257,441
Population aged under 15
228,963
215,285
Median age of population
40.0 yrs
41.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
28.2%
27.8%
Crude rate of total population change
6.5 /1k
9.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.3 /1k
9.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.4 /1k
8.7 /1k
Crude death rate
8.2 /1k
8.5 /1k
Live births
14,601
12,085
Deaths
11,551
11,792
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.1%
51.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.47
1.26
Population density (persons per km²)
938 /km²
2,869 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
1,576,574
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
15.8%
9.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
81.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.3%
6.8%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
768 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
—
1,213 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
237 /100k
234 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
—
13.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
608 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
—
669 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
35 /M
18 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.20
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.33
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.14
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
0.80
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
—
1.00
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.146/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
4 m
218 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
16 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
31 days/yr
73 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr