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NUTS-3 BE212 · Belgium

Arr. Mechelen

Export region data (CSV)

Arr. Mechelen generates €21bn of GDP across 362.5k residents. Its Opportunity Index of 75.3/100 puts it in the upper quartile of EU regions, led by market access and economic scale. Its economy has grown +5.4%/yr over five years and accelerating, with the employment rate up 3.3pp. On quality of life it ranks strongest for education (90th EU percentile) and weakest for clean environment (33th).

Geometry: GISCO NUTS 2024, EPSG:4326, generalised at 1:3M.
Opportunity Index · composite triage (experimental)
75.3
/ 100 · blends growth, livability, market access & scale · 4/4 pillars
Growth60
Livability62.3
Market access97
Economic scale82
Equal-weighted mean of four EU-percentile pillars (deliberately orthogonal: growth=trend, livability=quality, market=distance-weighted demand proxy, scale=absolute GDP). Experimental — a screening triage, not investment advice.
Resilience Index · downside / risk lens (experimental)
66.8
/ 100 · higher = more resilient to downturns · 4/4 pillars
GDP stability75
Labour stability79
Diversification25
Demographic stability88
Inverse of GDP-growth & unemployment volatility (since 2008, incl. 2009/2020 shocks), economic diversification (inverse HHI) and population stability — each EU-percentile-ranked. Higher withstands downturns better. Experimental.
Connectivity Index · transit · air · market access (experimental)
76.7
/ 100 · higher = better-connected · 3/3 facets
Transit density50
Airport access83
Market access97
Public-transport stop density, proximity to a major airport, and gravity access to surrounding economic mass — each EU-percentile-ranked. Higher = better-connected. Experimental.
Talent & Human Capital Index · skills base (experimental)
84.5
/ 100 · higher = deeper skills base than more EU regions · 4/4 facets
Young tertiary85
Lifelong learning86
Knowledge workers88
Scientists & engineers79
Young tertiary attainment (25–34), adult lifelong learning, knowledge-worker share and scientists & engineers — each EU-percentile-ranked. Higher = deeper talent pool. Experimental.
Clean-Air Score · air-quality livability (experimental)
32
/ 100 · higher = cleaner air than more EU regions · 3/3 pollutants
PM2.58.8 µg/m³
PM1015.3 µg/m³
NO221.1 µg/m³
PM2.5, PM10 & NO2 annual means from official monitoring networks, inverted (lower pollution = higher) and EU-percentile-ranked. Higher = cleaner air; ground-level ozone is shown separately. Experimental.
Quality of Life · composite (experimental)
62.3
/ 100 · EU-relative · 7/7 pillars
Economy88.5
Jobs41
Education90
Health81
Safety40.3
Connectivity62.5
Environment33
Equal-weighted percentile across 6 pillars vs all EU NUTS-3; lower-is-better indicators (crime, unemployment, mortality) inverted. Experimental — regional screening only.
Growth momentum · trend analytics
60
/ 100 momentum · EU-relative · 5/5 signals
GDP growth · 5-yr
+5.4%
CAGR, nominal
GDP growth · 10-yr
+4.8%
CAGR, nominal
Acceleration
+0.6 pp
5-yr vs 10-yr
vs country avg
-0.1 pp
inflation-adj.
Population · 5-yr
+0.8%
CAGR
Employment rate
+3.3 pp
5-yr change
Unemployment
+0.3 pp
5-yr change
Compound annual growth to the latest available year vs all EU NUTS-3; GDP is nominal EUR (“vs country avg” removes most national inflation). Screening signal, not a forecast.
Economic structure · gross value added by sector
Dominant: Finance · real estate · prof. · 30.5%Diversified · HHI 2427
Agriculture 0.9%Industry 17.5%Construction 4.4%Trade · transport · ICT 29.7%Finance · real estate · prof. 30.5%Public · health · education 17%
Share of total GVA (latest year). HHI = sum of squared sector shares ×10,000; higher means a more concentrated, single-sector-dependent economy (more cyclicality risk).
All indicators · 68 more metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€19,013M
2024 · EU pctl 82
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€179M
2024 · EU pctl 56
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,336M
2024 · EU pctl 77
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,995M
2024 · EU pctl 80
GVA — construction (F)
€829M
2024 · EU pctl 74
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€5,646M
2024 · EU pctl 88
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source)
€29,500
2024 · EU pctl 86 · NUTS-2 src
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
51,800 PPS
2024 · EU pctl 91
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€58,100
2024 · EU pctl 91
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy)
€29,336M
2023 · EU pctl 79 · NUTS-2 src
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C)
€7,442M
2023 · EU pctl 89 · NUTS-2 src
Compensation of employees (total wage bill)
€54,762M
2024 · EU pctl 75 · NUTS-2 src
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,624M
2024 · EU pctl 69
GVA — information & communication (J)
€1,907M
2024 · EU pctl 88
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€5,800M
2024 · EU pctl 86
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€3,223M
2024 · EU pctl 77
Labour market
Employment, total persons
163,700
2024 · EU pctl 66
Self-employed persons
27,500
2024 · EU pctl 68
Employment in manufacturing (C)
21,800
2024 · EU pctl 59
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source)
74.6%
2025 · EU pctl 32 · NUTS-2 src
Youth unemployment rate (15–24)
11.3%
2025 · EU pctl 39 · NUTS-2 src
Innovation & R&D
EPO patent applications
31
2012 · EU pctl 66
EPO patent applications per million inhabitants
93 /M pop
2012 · EU pctl 51
R&D expenditure as % of GDP
4.1%
2023 · EU pctl 90 · NUTS-2 src
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total)
6.6%
2025 · EU pctl 85 · NUTS-2 src
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64
47.3%
2025 · EU pctl 90 · NUTS-2 src
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool)
51.5%
2025 · EU pctl 85 · NUTS-2 src
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks)
19.4%
2025 · EU pctl 86 · NUTS-2 src
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force)
31.1%
2025 · EU pctl 88 · NUTS-2 src
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force)
10.8%
2025 · EU pctl 79 · NUTS-2 src
Digital
Households with internet access
96.7%
2025 · EU pctl 75 · NUTS-2 src
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
509,571
2024 · EU pctl 33
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants
492 /1k pop
2024 · EU pctl 18 · NUTS-2 src
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,465
CURRENT · EU pctl 69
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
404
CURRENT · EU pctl 50
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
22
CURRENT · EU pctl 16
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
5
CURRENT · EU pctl 96
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
227,736
2025 · EU pctl 67
Population aged 65+
77,797
2025 · EU pctl 64
Population aged under 15
56,947
2025 · EU pctl 70
Median age of population
43.2 yrs
2025 · EU pctl 20
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.2%
2025 · EU pctl 34
Crude rate of total population change
6.2 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 80
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.2 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 62
Crude birth rate
9.5 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 91
Crude death rate
9.6 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 17
Live births
3,440
2024 · EU pctl 74
Deaths
3,467
2024 · EU pctl 58
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.2%
2025 · EU pctl 50
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.53
2024 · EU pctl 77
Population density (persons per km²)
724 /km²
2024 · EU pctl 86
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE)
14.2%
2025 · EU pctl 13 · NUTS-2 src
Life expectancy at birth
83.3 yrs
2024 · EU pctl 81 · NUTS-2 src
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants
528 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 58 · NUTS-2 src
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate)
861 /100k
2021 · EU pctl 19 · NUTS-2 src
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate)
199 /100k
2023 · EU pctl 7 · NUTS-2 src
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.7 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 87
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
38.9 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 74
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
252 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 58
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,079 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 66
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants
34 /M pop
2024 · EU pctl 26 · NUTS-2 src
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
8 m
CURRENT · EU pctl 5
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 49
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
33 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 24
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 14
Environment
PM10 (coarse particulate matter) annual mean concentration — mean across EEA air-quality monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
15
2024 · EU pctl 57
NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) annual mean concentration — a traffic / combustion pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
21
2024 · EU pctl 90
O3 (ground-level ozone) annual mean concentration — a summer-smog pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data).
48
2024 · EU pctl 19
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