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 · NL366
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Utrecht (Opportunity 83). Runner-up: Groot-Rijnmond (80).
Strengths
Digital readiness (94) · Talent & skills (93)
Red flags
Flood: 52% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Utrecht
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Industrial base (EU pctl 9) — Groot-Rijnmond may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Groot-Rijnmond · Manufacturing → Groot-Rijnmond · Office → Utrecht · Residential → Utrecht.
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
83.2
80.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
81.3
76.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
73.4
65.9
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
42.3
32.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
68.0
73.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
98.0
93.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
62.4
60.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Population
0.8% 5y
0.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€75,408
€64,487
Population density
902 /km²
1,011 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 69 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€95,362M
€87,455M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€481M
€986M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€6,486M
€11,651M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€5,601M
€7,576M
GVA — construction (F)
€4,443M
€4,364M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€23,401M
€25,435M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,600
€26,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
64,900 PPS
55,400 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€75,600
€64,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€18,985M
€47,953M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,324M
€3,533M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€47,561M
€103,312M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€6,857M
€5,969M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€8,198M
€3,142M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€30,622M
€23,360M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€23,003M
€17,752M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
903,100
840,200
Self-employed persons
135,600
133,100
Employment in manufacturing (C)
40,000
46,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
87.6%
84.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
9.5%
11.4%
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
200,842
199,554
Enterprise births
18,550
22,388
Enterprise deaths
9,529
10,536
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.7%
7.6%
Innovation & R&D
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
8.1%
5.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
58.2%
47.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
66.2%
56.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
28.3%
26.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
40.0%
33.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
16.1%
13.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.6%
99.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
4,626,106
7,108,552
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
560 /1k
440 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
29,282 kt
63,361 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
2,920
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
251
193
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
124 km/1000km²
134 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
37
13
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
920,570
987,125
Population aged 65+
259,611
287,922
Population aged under 15
228,963
236,104
Median age of population
40.0 yrs
40.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
28.2%
29.2%
Crude rate of total population change
6.5 /1k
5.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.3 /1k
5.2 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.4 /1k
9.7 /1k
Crude death rate
8.2 /1k
9.2 /1k
Live births
14,601
14,591
Deaths
11,551
13,794
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.1%
53.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.47
1.38
Population density (persons per km²)
938 /km²
1,241 /km²
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
15.8%
17.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.4 yrs
82.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
12.3%
14.0%
Health
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
237 /100k
239 /100k
Safety & crime
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
35 /M
28 /M
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
4 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
4 days/yr
5 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
31 days/yr
27 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr