NUTS-3 NL423 · Netherlands
Zuid-Limburg
Export region data (CSV)Zuid-Limburg generates €29bn of GDP across 600.1k residents. Its Opportunity Index of 73.4/100 puts it in the upper quartile of EU regions, led by market access and economic scale. Its economy has grown +3.3%/yr over five years, with the employment rate up 5.1pp. On quality of life it ranks strongest for jobs (77.5th EU percentile) and weakest for health (42th).
Opportunity Index · composite triage (experimental)
73.4
/ 100 · blends growth, livability, market access & scale · 4/4 pillars
Growth48.2
Livability60.5
Market access96
Economic scale89
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)
51.8
/ 100 · higher = more resilient to downturns · 4/4 pillars
GDP stability64
Labour stability53
Diversification39
Demographic stability51
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)
78
/ 100 · higher = better-connected · 3/3 facets
Transit density42
Airport access96
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)
78.3
/ 100 · higher = deeper skills base than more EU regions · 4/4 facets
Young tertiary79
Lifelong learning89
Knowledge workers67
Scientists & engineers78
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)
65
/ 100 · higher = cleaner air than more EU regions · 3/3 pollutants
PM2.57.2 µg/m³
PM1013.8 µg/m³
NO210.7 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)
60.5
/ 100 · EU-relative · 7/7 pillars
Economy66
Jobs77.5
Education59
Health42
Safety48
Connectivity65
Environment65.7
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
48.2
/ 100 momentum · EU-relative · 5/5 signals
GDP growth · 5-yr
+3.3%
CAGR, nominal
GDP growth · 10-yr
+3.6%
CAGR, nominal
Acceleration
-0.3 pp
5-yr vs 10-yr
vs country avg
-2.8 pp
inflation-adj.
Population · 5-yr
+0.1%
CAGR
Employment rate
+5.1 pp
5-yr change
Unemployment
-0.5 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 · 30.3%Diversified · HHI 2320
Agriculture 0.5%Industry 15.1%Construction 3.9%Trade · transport · ICT 21.9%Finance · real estate · prof. 26%Public · health · education 30.3%
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 · 69 more metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€26,227M
2024 · EU pctl 89
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€137M
2023 · EU pctl 48
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,961M
2023 · EU pctl 81
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€3,187M
2023 · EU pctl 82
GVA — construction (F)
€1,011M
2023 · EU pctl 80
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€5,754M
2023 · EU pctl 88
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source)
€25,400
2023 · EU pctl 55 · NUTS-2 src
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
41,800 PPS
2024 · EU pctl 77
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€48,700
2024 · EU pctl 82
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy)
€11,196M
2023 · EU pctl 39 · NUTS-2 src
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C)
€1,560M
2023 · EU pctl 35 · NUTS-2 src
Compensation of employees (total wage bill)
€26,730M
2023 · EU pctl 40 · NUTS-2 src
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€2,032M
2023 · EU pctl 75
GVA — information & communication (J)
€846M
2023 · EU pctl 82
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€6,823M
2023 · EU pctl 89
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€7,948M
2023 · EU pctl 94
Labour market
Employment, total persons
316,700
2024 · EU pctl 87
Self-employed persons
50,000
2023 · EU pctl 87
Employment in manufacturing (C)
26,800
2023 · EU pctl 68
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source)
83.1%
2025 · EU pctl 88 · NUTS-2 src
Youth unemployment rate (15–24)
6.4%
2025 · EU pctl 12 · NUTS-2 src
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
58,654
2023 · EU pctl 88
Enterprise births
4,953
2023 · EU pctl 84
Enterprise deaths
3,064
2023 · EU pctl 77
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.6%
2023 · EU pctl 95
Innovation & R&D
EPO patent applications
55
2012 · EU pctl 78
EPO patent applications per million inhabitants
91 /M pop
2012 · EU pctl 50
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total)
3.8%
2025 · EU pctl 40 · NUTS-2 src
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64
37.3%
2025 · EU pctl 59 · NUTS-2 src
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool)
48.8%
2025 · EU pctl 79 · NUTS-2 src
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks)
22.9%
2025 · EU pctl 89 · NUTS-2 src
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force)
26.3%
2025 · EU pctl 67 · NUTS-2 src
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force)
10.7%
2025 · EU pctl 78 · NUTS-2 src
Digital
Households with internet access
98.0%
2025 · EU pctl 88 · NUTS-2 src
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
5,746,388
2024 · EU pctl 89
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants
545 /1k pop
2024 · EU pctl 30 · 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.
1,962
CURRENT · EU pctl 78
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
327
CURRENT · EU pctl 42
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
9
CURRENT · EU pctl 4
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
6
CURRENT · EU pctl 99
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
369,339
2025 · EU pctl 82
Population aged 65+
158,360
2025 · EU pctl 90
Population aged under 15
72,450
2025 · EU pctl 78
Median age of population
48.1 yrs
2025 · EU pctl 69
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
42.9%
2025 · EU pctl 79
Crude rate of total population change
-0.2 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 44
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.3 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 55
Crude birth rate
7.1 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 35
Crude death rate
12.7 /1k
2024 · EU pctl 67
Live births
4,289
2024 · EU pctl 81
Deaths
7,607
2024 · EU pctl 89
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
62.5%
2025 · EU pctl 71
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.25
2024 · EU pctl 27
Population density (persons per km²)
922 /km²
2024 · EU pctl 89
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE)
17.2%
2025 · EU pctl 32 · NUTS-2 src
Life expectancy at birth
81.6 yrs
2024 · EU pctl 48 · NUTS-2 src
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate)
1,066 /100k
2021 · EU pctl 64 · NUTS-2 src
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate)
249 /100k
2023 · EU pctl 79 · NUTS-2 src
Safety & crime
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
33.3 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 68
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
208 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 49
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
1,385 /100k
2024 · EU pctl 79
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants
33 /M pop
2024 · EU pctl 25 · NUTS-2 src
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
87 m
CURRENT · EU pctl 25
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
7 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 45
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
38 days/yr
CLIM_2014_2023 · EU pctl 28
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.
14
2024 · EU pctl 39
NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) annual mean concentration — a traffic / combustion pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data). Lower is better.
11
2024 · EU pctl 39
O3 (ground-level ozone) annual mean concentration — a summer-smog pollutant; mean across EEA monitoring stations within the region (verified E1a data).
49
2024 · EU pctl 24
Similar regions · nearest peers on standardised NUTS-3 indicators
Other Netherlands regions