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 · ITC4B
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Noord-Limburg (Opportunity 77). Runner-up: Mantova (60). Contrarian pick: Mantova — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 87).
#2Mantova
Strengths
Demographic outlook (87) · Freight intensity (86)
Red flags
Flood: 26% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Long-run slide: down 22 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
Why you might not pick Noord-Limburg
Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 36) — Mantova may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Noord-Limburg 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
- 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
76.9
60.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
74.0
51.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
59.5
49.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
51.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
76.0
52.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
78.3
29.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
72.0
45.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.7% 5y
3.1% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
0.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
3.0% 5y
8.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€56,883
€39,067
Population density
339 /km²
175 /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
€14,310M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€982M
€861M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,745M
€4,393M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,540M
€4,131M
GVA — construction (F)
€513M
€756M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,050M
€2,508M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€25,400
€26,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
48,800 PPS
40,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€57,000
€39,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€11,196M
€101,220M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,560M
€19,922M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€26,730M
€188,904M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,017M
€1,664M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€160M
€190M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,976M
€3,875M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,724M
€1,918M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€13,733M
€14,504M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€99,382
€88,551
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,481M
€3,337M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
174,400
185,300
Self-employed persons
25,100
41,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
19,400
48,600
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
83.1%
71.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.4%
10.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
158,500
189,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
29,303
29,458
Enterprise births
2,429
1,870
Enterprise deaths
1,396
1,652
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.6%
3.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
—
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.8%
5.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
—
1.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
37.3%
23.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
48.8%
34.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
22.9%
11.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
26.3%
18.7%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
10.7%
5.2%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
98.0%
96.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
5,225,252
838,919
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
545 /1k
640 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
15,089 kt
20,373 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
757
27
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
260
7
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
98 km/1000km²
32 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
14
30
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)
181,169
257,712
Population aged 65+
71,285
100,761
Population aged under 15
38,933
49,271
Median age of population
47.1 yrs
49.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
39.3%
39.1%
Crude rate of total population change
3.4 /1k
1.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.7 /1k
7.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.2 /1k
6.1 /1k
Crude death rate
10.5 /1k
11.6 /1k
Live births
2,381
2,505
Deaths
3,052
4,736
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
60.8%
58.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.46
1.22
Population density (persons per km²)
347 /km²
180 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
265,754
410,678
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
17.2%
12.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
81.6 yrs
84.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
14.4%
9.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
—
322 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,066 /100k
835 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
222 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
—
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
21.7 /100k
30.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
223 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,240 /100k
945 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
33 /M
38 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.77
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.72
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.73
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.92
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.63
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.142/kWh
€0.159/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
28 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
49 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
37 days/yr
31 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
8 days/yr