NUTS-3 NL421 · Netherlands
Population
291,3872025
GDP
€16,575M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
81%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
858.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NL421 · ES211
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Noord-Limburg (Opportunity 77). Runner-up: Araba/Álava (56). Contrarian pick: Araba/Álava — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 96).
Why you might not pick Noord-Limburg
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 36) — Araba/Álava may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Noord-Limburg · Manufacturing → Noord-Limburg · Office → Noord-Limburg · Residential → Araba/Álava.
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
76.9
55.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
74.0
47.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.5
68.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
51.7
69.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
76.0
37.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
78.3
88.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
72.0
48.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.7% 5y
2.3% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.0% 5y
1.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€56,883
€41,205
Population density
339 /km²
112 /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)
€14,875M
€12,858M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€982M
€185M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,745M
€4,011M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,540M
€3,807M
GVA — construction (F)
€513M
€627M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,050M
€2,446M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,400
€24,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
48,800 PPS
46,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€57,000
€41,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€11,196M
€16,022M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,560M
€3,378M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€26,730M
€43,785M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,017M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€160M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,976M
€2,864M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,724M
€2,725M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€13,733M
€13,170M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€99,382
€88,967
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,481M
€2,952M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
174,400
168,600
Self-employed persons
25,100
15,700
Employment in manufacturing (C)
19,400
41,600
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
83.1%
74.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.4%
18.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
7.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
158,500
165,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
29,303
18,794
Enterprise births
2,429
1,391
Enterprise deaths
1,396
1,326
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.6%
4.7%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
2.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.8%
4.7%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
2.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.3%
58.2%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.8%
68.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
22.9%
19.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
26.3%
32.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.7%
10.6%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.0%
97.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
5,225,252
1,447,433
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
478 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
15,089 kt
22,169 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
757
455
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
98 km/1000km²
70 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
260
133
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
14
55
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)
181,169
218,541
Population aged 65+
71,285
78,143
Population aged under 15
38,933
45,277
Median age of population
47.1 yrs
47.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
39.3%
35.8%
Crude rate of total population change
3.4 /1k
9.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.7 /1k
12.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.2 /1k
6.2 /1k
Crude death rate
10.5 /1k
8.9 /1k
Live births
2,381
2,094
Deaths
3,052
3,025
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.8%
56.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.46
1.16
Population density (persons per km²)
347 /km²
113 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
265,754
316,620
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
17.2%
14.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.6 yrs
84.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.4%
9.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
327 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,066 /100k
779 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
216 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
21.7 /100k
59.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
223 /100k
189 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,240 /100k
434 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
33 /M
21 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
1.14
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.72
0.84
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.73
0.96
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.92
0.78
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.63
0.16
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.106/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.039/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
25 m
532 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
19 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
37 days/yr
25 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
3 days/yr