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NUTS-3 DEA32 · Germany

Gelsenkirchen, Kreisfreie Stadt

Export region data (CSV)

Gelsenkirchen, Kreisfreie Stadt generates €10bn of GDP across 267.9k residents. Its Opportunity Index of 61.3/100 puts it in the upper quartile of EU regions, led by market access and economic scale. Its economy has grown +4.1%/yr over five years and accelerating, with the employment rate up 2.1pp. On quality of life it ranks strongest for jobs (68.5th EU percentile) and weakest for clean environment (19.3th).

Geometry: GISCO NUTS 2024, EPSG:4326, generalised at 1:3M.
Opportunity Index · composite triage (experimental)
61.3
/ 100 · blends growth, livability, market access & scale · 4/4 pillars
Growth42.8
Livability44.4
Market access97
Economic scale61
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)
53.8
/ 100 · higher = more resilient to downturns · 4/4 pillars
GDP stability44
Labour stability63
Diversification28
Demographic stability80
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)
70
/ 100 · higher = better-connected · 3/3 facets
Transit density45
Airport access68
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)
33
/ 100 · higher = deeper skills base than more EU regions · 4/4 facets
Young tertiary32
Lifelong learning29
Knowledge workers31
Scientists & engineers40
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)
19.3
/ 100 · higher = cleaner air than more EU regions · 3/3 pollutants
PM2.510.2 µg/m³
PM1018 µg/m³
NO223.2 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)
44.4
/ 100 · EU-relative · 7/7 pillars
Economy61
Jobs68.5
Education29.5
Health37.5
Safety50
Connectivity45
Environment19.3
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
42.8
/ 100 momentum · EU-relative · 5/5 signals
GDP growth · 5-yr
+4.1%
CAGR, nominal
GDP growth · 10-yr
+2.5%
CAGR, nominal
Acceleration
+1.6 pp
5-yr vs 10-yr
vs country avg
-0.1 pp
inflation-adj.
Population · 5-yr
+0.6%
CAGR
Employment rate
+2.1 pp
5-yr change
Unemployment
-0.2 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: Public · health · education · 29.7%Diversified · HHI 2403
Agriculture 0.1%Industry 27.5%Construction 4.9%Trade · transport · ICT 15.5%Finance · real estate · prof. 22.3%Public · health · education 29.7%
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 · 67 more metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€9,389M
2023 · EU pctl 61
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€6M
2023 · EU pctl 3
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,581M
2023 · EU pctl 67
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,886M
2023 · EU pctl 64
GVA — construction (F)
€457M
2023 · EU pctl 50
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,456M
2023 · EU pctl 51
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source)
€27,000
2023 · EU pctl 67 · NUTS-2 src
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
34,400 PPS
2023 · EU pctl 55
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€38,600
2023 · EU pctl 60
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy)
€20,727M
2023 · EU pctl 67 · NUTS-2 src
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C)
€2,530M
2023 · EU pctl 54 · NUTS-2 src
Compensation of employees (total wage bill)
€59,763M
2023 · EU pctl 78 · NUTS-2 src
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,097M
2023 · EU pctl 62
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,792M
2023 · EU pctl 72
Labour market
Employment, total persons
117,850
2023 · EU pctl 50
Self-employed persons
7,940
2023 · EU pctl 27
Employment in manufacturing (C)
9,940
2023 · EU pctl 28
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source)
79.1%
2025 · EU pctl 62 · NUTS-2 src
Youth unemployment rate (15–24)
4.6%
2019 · EU pctl 3 · NUTS-2 src
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
6,830
2023 · EU pctl 28
Enterprise births
674
2023 · EU pctl 34
Enterprise deaths
709
2023 · EU pctl 39
3-year enterprise survival rate
3.8%
2023 · EU pctl 32
Innovation & R&D
EPO patent applications
9
2012 · EU pctl 38
EPO patent applications per million inhabitants
35 /M pop
2012 · EU pctl 33
R&D expenditure as % of GDP
1.2%
2023 · EU pctl 32 · NUTS-2 src
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total)
3.3%
2025 · EU pctl 25 · NUTS-2 src
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64
30.1%
2025 · EU pctl 27 · NUTS-2 src
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool)
35.3%
2025 · EU pctl 32 · NUTS-2 src
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks)
8.7%
2025 · EU pctl 29 · NUTS-2 src
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force)
20.6%
2025 · EU pctl 31 · NUTS-2 src
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force)
7.7%
2025 · EU pctl 40 · NUTS-2 src
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
308,463
2024 · EU pctl 19
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants
590 /1k pop
2024 · EU pctl 45 · 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.
983
CURRENT · EU pctl 53
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
367
CURRENT · EU pctl 45
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
38
CURRENT · EU pctl 32
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)
170,149
2025 · EU pctl 54
Population aged 65+
54,700
2025 · EU pctl 46
Population aged under 15
43,081
2025 · EU pctl 59
Median age of population
42.8 yrs
2025 · EU pctl 17
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.1%
2025 · EU pctl 22
Crude rate of total population change
2.4 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 60
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.1 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 53
Crude birth rate
10.0 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 96
Crude death rate
12.6 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 65
Live births
2,669
2024 · EU pctl 66
Deaths
3,379
2024 · EU pctl 56
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.5%
2025 · EU pctl 38
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.66
2024 · EU pctl 93
Population density (persons per km²)
2,549 /km²
2024 · EU pctl 97
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE)
24.5%
2025 · EU pctl 78 · NUTS-2 src
Life expectancy at birth
80.8 yrs
2024 · EU pctl 33 · NUTS-2 src
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate)
1,053 /100k
2021 · EU pctl 58 · NUTS-2 src
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate)
246 /100k
2023 · EU pctl 74 · NUTS-2 src
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.4 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 30
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
88.7 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 92
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
528 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 91
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,076 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 92
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants
35 /M pop
2024 · EU pctl 28 · NUTS-2 src
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
68 m
CURRENT · EU pctl 20
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
8 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 52
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
40 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 31
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 41
Environment
PM10 (coarse particulate matter) annual mean concentration — mean across EEA air-quality monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
18
2024 · EU pctl 73
NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) annual mean concentration — a traffic / combustion pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
23
2024 · EU pctl 94
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