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2 regions side-by-side

Name: TerraSight EU regional indicators
Creator: TerraSight
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

NO083 · BE231

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NUTS-3 NO083 · Norway

Østfold

Population

314,4072025

GDP

—

Unemployment· NUTS-2 source

5%2025

Employment· NUTS-2 source

80.3%2025

Active firms· FR-only

—

Cadastral parcels· FR-only

—

Area

3,898.8 km²

NUTS-3 BE231 · Belgium

Arr. Aalst

Population

307,8732025

GDP

€10,350M2024

Unemployment· NUTS-2 source

4.2%2025

Employment· NUTS-2 source

78.8%2025

Active firms· FR-only

—

Cadastral parcels· FR-only

—

Area

474.8 km²

Decision brief

Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity

Best overall fit: Arr. Aalst (Opportunity 67). Runner-up: Østfold (45). Contrarian pick: Østfold — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 100).

#1Arr. Aalst

Strengths

Talent & skills (91) · Connectivity (71)

Red flags

Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%)

#2Østfold

Strengths

Energy cost (100) · Talent & skills (95)

No red flags

Why you might not pick Arr. Aalst

Cost advantage (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 6) — Østfold may suit a mandate that weights that higher.

How robust is this recommendation?

The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Østfold · Manufacturing → Østfold · Office → Østfold · Residential → Arr. Aalst.

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

44.8

67.2

Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers

—

71.0

Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment

70.3

64.3

Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted

37.0

—

Connectivitytransit + air + market access

51.7

71.3

Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers

95.3

90.8

Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory

46.0

50.4

Trajectories · 2012–latest

Real GDP (2020 prices)

—

2.7% 5y

Population

1.2% 5y

0.9% 5y

Unemployment rate

—

8.7% 5y

Derived comparisons

GDP per capita

—

€33,617

Population density

81 /km²

648 /km²

Parcels per 1k pop

FR-only

Firms per 1k pop

FR-only

All indicators · 86 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)

Economy

Gross value added, total (current prices)

—

€9,368M

GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)

—

€42M

GVA — industry (B–E)

—

€1,288M

GVA — manufacturing (C)

—

€1,103M

GVA — construction (F)

—

€915M

GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)

—

€1,717M

Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2

€28,600

€30,800

GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)

—

30,100 PPS

GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)

—

€33,800

Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2

€27,753M

€20,203M

Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2

€831M

€2,558M

Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2

€65,746M

€37,875M

GVA — real estate activities (L)

—

€1,358M

GVA — information & communication (J)

—

€248M

GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)

—

€2,961M

GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)

—

€2,445M

Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)

—

€8,749M

Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)

—

€111,762

Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)

—

€2,815M

Labour market

Employment, total persons

—

95,500

Self-employed persons

—

22,300

Employment in manufacturing (C)

—

9,200

Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2

81.4%

76.7%

Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2

15.6%

16.6%

Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)

—

4.1%

Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)

—

151,900

Innovation & R&D

R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2

2.9%

3.4%

Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2

7.8%

5.7%

R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2

2.3%

2.7%

Education

Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2

56.5%

48.8%

Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2

63.5%

56.4%

Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2

21.7%

20.5%

Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2

37.5%

35.9%

Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2

13.8%

11.9%

Digital

Households with internet access ·N2

99.0%

95.7%

Tourism

Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)

815,829

240,497

Mobility

Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2

494 /1k

475 /1k

Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)

14,330 kt

5,236 kt

Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.

3,398

1,379

Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2

12 km/1000km²

66 km/1000km²

Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).

1,081

448

Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.

Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.

Demography

Population aged 15–64 (working age)

199,464

193,125

Population aged 65+

66,117

65,741

Population aged under 15

48,826

49,007

Median age of population

43.6 yrs

43.9 yrs

Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)

33.1%

34.0%

Crude rate of total population change

7.2 /1k

8.7 /1k

Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment

8.2 /1k

9.8 /1k

Crude birth rate

8.6 /1k

9.0 /1k

Crude death rate

9.6 /1k

10.1 /1k

Live births

2,682

2,749

Deaths

2,994

3,086

Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)

57.6%

59.4%

Total fertility rate (births per woman)

1.47

1.52

Population density (persons per km²)

—

648 /km²

Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)

—

293,209

Social

At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2

15.3%

12.1%

Life expectancy at birth ·N2

83.4 yrs

83.0 yrs

At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2

10.8%

6.1%

Health

Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2

324 /100k

566 /100k

Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2

823 /100k

867 /100k

Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2

206 /100k

222 /100k

Safety & crime

Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants

0.6 /100k

1.0 /100k

Robberies per 100k inhabitants

14.4 /100k

44.6 /100k

Burglaries per 100k inhabitants

—

226 /100k

Thefts per 100k inhabitants

1,764 /100k

930 /100k

Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2

15 /M

38 /M

Governance & institutions

Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)

—

1.31

Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)

—

1.41

Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)

—

1.34

Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)

—

1.58

Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)

—

0.25

Energy

Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)

€0.064/kWh

€0.130/kWh

Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)

—

€0.046/kWh

Housing market

Dwelling price per m² (NOK, all types, Statistics Norway)

37,245 NOK/m²

—

Climate

Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)

139 m

63 m

Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)

0 days/yr

5 days/yr

Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)

111 days/yr

34 days/yr

Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)

7 days/yr

2 days/yr