NUTS-3 RO113 · Romania
Population
697,3742025
GDP
€18,793M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
6,653.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO113 · RO424
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Cluj (Opportunity 42). Runner-up: Timiş (41). Contrarian pick: Timiş — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 82).
#1Cluj
Strengths
Cost advantage (96) · Economic base (83)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
#2Timiş
Strengths
Cost advantage (94) · Demographic outlook (82)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Cluj
Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%); Air quality (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 2) — Timiş may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Cluj 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
41.8
40.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
34.3
26.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
23.2
26.4
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
6.3
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
44.0
41.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
13.8
33.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
45.8
47.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.1% 5y
4.2% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
1.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.6% 5y
2.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€26,948
€23,751
Population density
105 /km²
77 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€17,030M
€14,360M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€193M
€395M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,762M
€3,734M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,193M
€3,350M
GVA — construction (F)
€1,267M
€662M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€6,813M
€5,382M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€9,100
€9,900
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
44,800 PPS
39,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€27,000
€23,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,805M
€5,950M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,026M
€880M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€16,038M
€11,679M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€1,022M
€682M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€3,544M
€2,301M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€3,378M
€1,847M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,616M
€2,340M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€14,059M
€12,322M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€58,674
€55,811
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€4,349M
€3,403M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
356,560
316,090
Self-employed persons
43,270
26,500
Employment in manufacturing (C)
66,190
99,820
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
68.4%
64.5%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
28.3%
31.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.9%
5.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
310,400
279,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
58,982
43,520
Enterprise births
7,271
5,632
Enterprise deaths
4,497
3,259
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.5%
5.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.3%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.3%
6.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.2%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
18.6%
19.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
22.8%
17.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
7.5%
10.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
15.4%
18.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.1%
9.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.5%
96.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,200,481
697,364
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
436 /1k
476 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
9,358 kt
11,564 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
109
1,042
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
3 km/1000km²
8 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
16
156
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
12
27
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)
455,317
436,278
Population aged 65+
137,100
126,363
Population aged under 15
104,957
104,584
Median age of population
42.2 yrs
42.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
30.1%
29.0%
Crude rate of total population change
5.6 /1k
5.5 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.9 /1k
8.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.1 /1k
8.1 /1k
Crude death rate
11.4 /1k
11.0 /1k
Live births
5,623
5,370
Deaths
7,913
7,289
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
53.2%
52.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.22
1.29
Population density (persons per km²)
105 /km²
77 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
499,208
539,223
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
27.5%
20.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
76.6 yrs
76.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
15.6%
11.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
753 /100k
805 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,857 /100k
1,939 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
255 /100k
249 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
0.1 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
15.6 /100k
20.9 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
128 /100k
200 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
153 /100k
543 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
65 /M
68 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.20
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.39
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.44
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.07
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.55
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.155/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.051/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
429 m
120 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
16 days/yr
30 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
107 days/yr
61 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr