NUTS-3 HR062 · Croatia
Population
158,8602025
GDP
€2,986M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,265 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
HR062 · RO225
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Varaždinska županija (Opportunity 37). Runner-up: Tulcea (19). Contrarian pick: Tulcea — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Industrial base (94) · Cost advantage (91)
Red flags
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Tulcea
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Energy cost (52)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Varaždinska županija
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Digital readiness (EU pctl 2) — Tulcea may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Varaždinska županija leads under all four archetype mandates — the recommendation is weight-stable.
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
37.2
18.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
29.3
41.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
36.0
15.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
31.0
13.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
14.5
13.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
71.8
43.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.0% 5y
1.4% 5y
Population
0.4% 5y
0.5% 5y
Unemployment rate
9.7% 5y
8.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€18,797
€15,336
Population density
126 /km²
22 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 88 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€2,476M
€2,607M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€126M
€217M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€923M
€596M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€853M
€360M
GVA — construction (F)
€171M
€207M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€488M
€543M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€10,800
€7,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
26,300 PPS
25,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€18,800
€15,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€3,296M
€6,740M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,033M
€569M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€6,092M
€11,406M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€101M
€327M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€99M
€37M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€302M
€492M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€465M
€552M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,362M
€1,858M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€42,120
€34,487
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€755M
€664M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
75,620
92,880
Self-employed persons
8,980
30,130
Employment in manufacturing (C)
24,640
14,840
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
72.6%
63.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
12.6%
31.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.0%
11.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
76,200
75,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
7,858
7,331
Enterprise births
914
775
Enterprise deaths
366
428
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.5%
6.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.9%
0.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.4%
0.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
0.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
22.4%
14.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
32.6%
16.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
4.3%
9.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
17.8%
13.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.0%
6.4%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
87.4%
93.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
239,270
354,637
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
500 /1k
415 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,762 kt
3,437 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
28
18
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
31 km/1000km²
5 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
18
10
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
59
85
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
103,552
119,149
Population aged 65+
34,555
42,055
Population aged under 15
20,753
26,415
Median age of population
45.2 yrs
46.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.4%
35.3%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.6 /1k
-9.1 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.4 /1k
0.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.4 /1k
6.3 /1k
Crude death rate
13.4 /1k
15.5 /1k
Live births
1,181
1,185
Deaths
2,131
2,930
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.4%
57.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.35
1.38
Population density (persons per km²)
—
27 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
92,001
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
17.6%
38.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
78.5 yrs
75.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.9%
25.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
465 /100k
638 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,622 /100k
1,908 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
305 /100k
233 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.3 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
8.8 /100k
13.2 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
155 /100k
115 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
194 /100k
148 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
42 /M
94 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.72
0.20
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.30
0.39
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.43
0.44
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.11
0.07
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.73
0.55
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.126/kWh
€0.155/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.051/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
170 m
67 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
17 days/yr
27 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
60 days/yr
53 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
3 days/yr