NUTS-3 NL366 · Netherlands
Population
1,511,1512025
GDP
€97,450M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.8%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
82%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,494.7 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL366 · NL350
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
80.0
83.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
76.5
81.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
65.9
73.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
32.3
42.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
73.7
68.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
93.3
98.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
60.2
62.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Population
0.8% 5y
0.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€64,487
€75,408
Population density
1,011 /km²
902 /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)
€87,455M
€95,362M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€986M
€481M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€11,651M
€6,486M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€7,576M
€5,601M
GVA — construction (F)
€4,364M
€4,443M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€25,435M
€23,401M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€26,500
€28,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
55,400 PPS
64,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€64,700
€75,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€47,953M
€18,985M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€3,533M
€1,324M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€103,312M
€47,561M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€5,969M
€6,857M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€3,142M
€8,198M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€23,360M
€30,622M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€17,752M
€23,003M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
840,200
903,100
Self-employed persons
133,100
135,600
Employment in manufacturing (C)
46,200
40,000
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
84.3%
87.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
11.4%
9.5%
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
199,554
200,842
Enterprise births
22,388
18,550
Enterprise deaths
10,536
9,529
3-year enterprise survival rate
7.6%
6.7%
Innovation & R&D
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
5.4%
8.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
47.3%
58.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
56.7%
66.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
26.5%
28.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
33.0%
40.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
13.2%
16.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.2%
99.6%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
7,108,552
4,626,106
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
440 /1k
560 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
63,361 kt
29,282 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
2,920
3,535
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
193
251
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
134 km/1000km²
124 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
13
37
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
987,125
920,570
Population aged 65+
287,922
259,611
Population aged under 15
236,104
228,963
Median age of population
40.6 yrs
40.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
29.2%
28.2%
Crude rate of total population change
5.7 /1k
6.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.2 /1k
4.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.7 /1k
10.4 /1k
Crude death rate
9.2 /1k
8.2 /1k
Live births
14,591
14,601
Deaths
13,794
11,551
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.1%
53.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.38
1.47
Population density (persons per km²)
1,241 /km²
938 /km²
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
17.2%
15.8%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
82.0 yrs
82.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.0%
12.3%
Health
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
239 /100k
237 /100k
Safety & crime
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
28 /M
35 /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)
5 days/yr
4 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
31 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr