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 · FRK26
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Utrecht (Opportunity 83). Runner-up: Rhône (68). Contrarian pick: Rhône — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 96).
Why you might not pick Utrecht
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 9) — Rhône 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
67.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
81.3
63.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
73.4
55.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
42.3
25.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
68.0
60.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
98.0
89.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
62.4
54.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
—
2.9% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
—
1.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€75,408
€57,724
Population density
902 /km²
592 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
496
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
271
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€95,362M
€99,527M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€481M
€406M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€6,486M
€15,582M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,601M
€11,524M
GVA — construction (F)
€4,443M
€5,378M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€23,401M
€22,265M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,600
€24,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
64,900 PPS
53,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€75,600
€57,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€18,985M
€66,409M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,324M
€8,444M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€47,561M
€150,675M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€6,857M
€11,241M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€8,198M
€7,167M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€30,622M
€34,641M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€23,003M
€21,255M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
—
€99,556M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
—
€102,540
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
—
€25,127M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
903,100
1,107,000
Self-employed persons
135,600
103,200
Employment in manufacturing (C)
40,000
94,000
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
87.6%
77.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.5%
16.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
—
7.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
—
971,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
200,842
178,069
Enterprise births
18,550
26,304
Enterprise deaths
9,529
20,825
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.7%
7.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
3.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
8.1%
5.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
2.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
58.2%
49.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
66.2%
60.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
28.3%
17.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
40.0%
34.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
16.1%
11.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.6%
95.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,626,106
8,279,966
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
560 /1k
—
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
3,535
8,452
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
29,282 kt
39,769 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
251
438
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
124 km/1000km²
29 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
37
41
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)
920,570
1,250,707
Population aged 65+
259,611
351,380
Population aged under 15
228,963
327,434
Median age of population
40.0 yrs
38.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
28.2%
28.1%
Crude rate of total population change
6.5 /1k
3.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.3 /1k
-0.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.4 /1k
11.1 /1k
Crude death rate
8.2 /1k
7.0 /1k
Live births
14,601
21,420
Deaths
11,551
13,529
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.1%
54.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.47
1.58
Population density (persons per km²)
938 /km²
597 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
2,401,553
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
15.8%
18.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
84.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.3%
14.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
511 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
—
771 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
237 /100k
204 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
1.1 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
—
164 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
—
760 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
—
3,343 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
35 /M
47 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.46
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.27
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.02
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
—
1.39
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
—
0.02
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.107/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.053/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
4 m
377 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
23 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
31 days/yr
50 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr