NUTS-3 BE242 · Belgium
Arr. Leuven
Export region data (CSV)Arr. Leuven generates €26bn of GDP across 531k residents. Its Opportunity Index of 76.7/100 puts it in the upper quartile of EU regions, led by market access and economic scale. Its economy has grown +5.8%/yr over five years and accelerating, with the employment rate up 2.1pp. On quality of life it ranks strongest for education (95th EU percentile) and weakest for jobs (37th).
Opportunity Index · composite triage (experimental)
76.7
/ 100 · blends growth, livability, market access & scale · 4/4 pillars
Growth52.2
Livability71.7
Market access96
Economic scale87
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)
63
/ 100 · higher = more resilient to downturns · 4/4 pillars
GDP stability70
Labour stability89
Diversification9
Demographic stability84
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)
83.7
/ 100 · higher = better-connected · 3/3 facets
Transit density74
Airport access81
Market access96
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)
93
/ 100 · higher = deeper skills base than more EU regions · 4/4 facets
Young tertiary95
Lifelong learning86
Knowledge workers98
Scientists & engineers93
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)
64
/ 100 · higher = cleaner air than more EU regions · 3/3 pollutants
PM2.57.9 µg/m³
PM1014.2 µg/m³
NO28.7 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)
71.7
/ 100 · EU-relative · 7/7 pillars
Economy90
Jobs37
Education95
Health91
Safety61.3
Connectivity62.5
Environment65
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
52.2
/ 100 momentum · EU-relative · 5/5 signals
GDP growth · 5-yr
+5.8%
CAGR, nominal
GDP growth · 10-yr
+4.7%
CAGR, nominal
Acceleration
+1.1 pp
5-yr vs 10-yr
vs country avg
+0.2 pp
inflation-adj.
Population · 5-yr
+0.7%
CAGR
Employment rate
+2.1 pp
5-yr change
Unemployment
+1.6 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. · 37.7%Moderately concentrated · HHI 2723
Agriculture 1%Industry 10.5%Construction 3.1%Trade · transport · ICT 19.2%Finance · real estate · prof. 37.7%Public · health · education 28.5%
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)
€23,830M
2024 · EU pctl 87
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€240M
2024 · EU pctl 65
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,500M
2024 · EU pctl 66
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,849M
2024 · EU pctl 64
GVA — construction (F)
€745M
2024 · EU pctl 71
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€4,566M
2024 · EU pctl 85
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source)
€32,200
2024 · EU pctl 98 · NUTS-2 src
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
44,300 PPS
2024 · EU pctl 82
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€49,800
2024 · EU pctl 83
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy)
€16,879M
2023 · EU pctl 60 · NUTS-2 src
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C)
€800M
2023 · EU pctl 18 · NUTS-2 src
Compensation of employees (total wage bill)
€32,835M
2024 · EU pctl 51 · NUTS-2 src
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€2,558M
2024 · EU pctl 80
GVA — information & communication (J)
€1,138M
2024 · EU pctl 84
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€8,990M
2024 · EU pctl 92
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€6,789M
2024 · EU pctl 91
Labour market
Employment, total persons
206,100
2024 · EU pctl 74
Self-employed persons
42,700
2024 · EU pctl 83
Employment in manufacturing (C)
13,600
2024 · EU pctl 40
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source)
74.4%
2025 · EU pctl 29 · NUTS-2 src
Youth unemployment rate (15–24)
19.7%
2025 · EU pctl 71 · NUTS-2 src
Innovation & R&D
EPO patent applications
184
2012 · EU pctl 96
EPO patent applications per million inhabitants
373 /M pop
2012 · EU pctl 92
R&D expenditure as % of GDP
5.2%
2023 · EU pctl 92 · NUTS-2 src
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total)
7.4%
2025 · EU pctl 91 · NUTS-2 src
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64
56.7%
2025 · EU pctl 98 · NUTS-2 src
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool)
57.8%
2025 · EU pctl 95 · NUTS-2 src
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks)
19.0%
2025 · EU pctl 86 · NUTS-2 src
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force)
39.9%
2025 · EU pctl 98 · NUTS-2 src
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force)
13.4%
2025 · EU pctl 93 · NUTS-2 src
Digital
Households with internet access
95.6%
2025 · EU pctl 51 · NUTS-2 src
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
866,158
2024 · EU pctl 49
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants
720 /1k pop
2024 · EU pctl 94 · 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.
3,505
CURRENT · EU pctl 92
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
660
CURRENT · EU pctl 74
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
26
CURRENT · EU pctl 19
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
4
CURRENT · EU pctl 90
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
336,542
2025 · EU pctl 79
Population aged 65+
114,853
2025 · EU pctl 79
Population aged under 15
79,576
2025 · EU pctl 80
Median age of population
43.4 yrs
2025 · EU pctl 22
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.1%
2025 · EU pctl 33
Crude rate of total population change
7.0 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 84
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.1 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 77
Crude birth rate
8.3 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 64
Crude death rate
9.4 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 15
Live births
4,384
2024 · EU pctl 81
Deaths
4,959
2024 · EU pctl 74
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.8%
2025 · EU pctl 40
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.32
2024 · EU pctl 37
Population density (persons per km²)
453 /km²
2024 · EU pctl 81
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE)
8.8%
2025 · EU pctl 1 · NUTS-2 src
Life expectancy at birth
83.9 yrs
2024 · EU pctl 89 · NUTS-2 src
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants
379 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 40 · NUTS-2 src
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate)
810 /100k
2021 · EU pctl 7 · NUTS-2 src
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate)
196 /100k
2023 · EU pctl 6 · NUTS-2 src
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.4 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 31
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
35.5 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 71
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
337 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 73
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,269 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 75
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants
26 /M pop
2024 · EU pctl 10 · NUTS-2 src
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
55 m
CURRENT · EU pctl 16
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
6 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 36
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
35 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 25
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 9
Environment
PM10 (coarse particulate matter) annual mean concentration — mean across EEA air-quality monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
14
2024 · EU pctl 44
NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) annual mean concentration — a traffic / combustion pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
9
2024 · EU pctl 25
O3 (ground-level ozone) annual mean concentration — a summer-smog pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data).
55
2024 · EU pctl 57
Similar regions · nearest peers on standardised NUTS-3 indicators
Other Belgium regions