NUTS-3 NO085 · Norway
Population
271,2482025
GDP
—
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
14,799.6 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
NO085 · NO093
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Buskerud (Opportunity 43). Runner-up: Vestfold (42). Contrarian pick: Vestfold — leads the set on Digital readiness (EU pctl 98).
Why you might not pick Buskerud
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 21) — Vestfold may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Buskerud · Manufacturing → Buskerud · Office → Vestfold · Residential → Vestfold.
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
42.7
41.6
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
69.1
69.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
40.3
73.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
40.3
66.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
95.3
79.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
45.0
42.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Population
1.0% 5y
1.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
—
—
Population density
18 /km²
120 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 55 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,600
€25,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€27,753M
€8,238M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€831M
€632M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€65,746M
€17,442M
Labour market
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
81.4%
76.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
15.6%
13.4%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
2.9%
1.7%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
7.8%
3.2%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
2.3%
1.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
56.5%
43.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
63.5%
50.6%
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%
29.1%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
13.8%
9.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
99.0%
100.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,995,970
1,628,231
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
494 /1k
533 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
19,417 kt
7,576 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
4,547
3,242
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
12 km/1000km²
6 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
1,676
1,256
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
118
16
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
173,889
161,871
Population aged 65+
54,948
55,966
Population aged under 15
42,411
40,234
Median age of population
42.9 yrs
44.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.6%
34.6%
Crude rate of total population change
5.3 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.8 /1k
6.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.7 /1k
8.4 /1k
Crude death rate
9.2 /1k
8.8 /1k
Live births
2,349
2,155
Deaths
2,480
2,268
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.0%
59.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.44
1.46
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
15.3%
18.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
83.4 yrs
82.8 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
10.8%
13.5%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
324 /100k
263 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
823 /100k
841 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
206 /100k
218 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.9 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
18.5 /100k
28.5 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,877 /100k
1,876 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
15 /M
13 /M
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.064/kWh
€0.064/kWh
Housing market
Dwelling price per m² (NOK, all types, Statistics Norway)
40,362 NOK/m²
39,491 NOK/m²
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
649 m
145 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
0 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
190 days/yr
120 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
9 days/yr
12 days/yr