NUTS-3 RO121 · Romania
Population
325,2602025
GDP
€5,474M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
6,263.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO121 · LT026
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Alba (Opportunity 39). Runner-up: Šiaulių apskritis (37). Contrarian pick: Šiaulių apskritis — leads the set on Talent & skills (EU pctl 66).
#1Alba
Strengths
Cost advantage (95) · Industrial base (81)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (80) · Growth momentum (74)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Alba
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 2) — Šiaulių apskritis may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Alba · Manufacturing → Alba · Office → Šiaulių apskritis · Residential → Šiaulių apskritis.
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
39.0
37.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
42.5
46.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
28.2
32.1
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
27.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
32.3
34.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
24.3
66.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
77.8
74.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.4% 5y
1.7% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
10.4% 5y
3.2% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€16,831
€19,285
Population density
52 /km²
31 /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)
€4,961M
€4,607M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€256M
€341M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,503M
€928M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,309M
€714M
GVA — construction (F)
€324M
€309M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€957M
€1,514M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€9,200
€14,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
27,900 PPS
24,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€16,800
€19,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€10,071M
€10,284M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,159M
€1,567M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€14,134M
€21,259M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€590M
€328M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€40M
€80M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€955M
€732M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€966M
€783M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,887M
€3,873M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€43,034
€44,276
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,601M
€1,349M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
141,610
124,820
Self-employed persons
28,420
12,990
Employment in manufacturing (C)
40,990
22,230
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
66.3%
78.7%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
24.2%
15.5%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.1%
7.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
136,900
140,300
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
18,404
23,346
Enterprise births
2,204
4,754
Enterprise deaths
1,357
4,152
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.7%
5.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.4%
0.7%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.8%
2.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
19.7%
42.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
20.6%
52.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
7.8%
9.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.2%
26.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.9%
9.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
97.4%
87.8%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
453,216
296,252
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
433 /1k
611 /1k
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
111
2,097
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
9,445 kt
7,073 kt
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
34
786
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
6 km/1000km²
7 km/1000km²
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
49
115
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
207,576
173,117
Population aged 65+
71,514
59,413
Population aged under 15
46,170
34,206
Median age of population
45.9 yrs
46.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.5%
34.3%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.3 /1k
-0.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.3 /1k
8.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.1 /1k
5.6 /1k
Crude death rate
12.7 /1k
14.6 /1k
Live births
2,312
1,506
Deaths
4,138
3,898
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.7%
54.1%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.40
1.09
Population density (persons per km²)
52 /km²
32 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
194,902
127,932
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.1%
30.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
77.0 yrs
77.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
19.1%
26.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
749 /100k
511 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,780 /100k
1,630 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
236 /100k
259 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.6 /100k
1.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
10.4 /100k
6.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
107 /100k
24.0 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
149 /100k
165 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
72 /M
49 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.94
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
1.19
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
1.23
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.86
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.96
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.136/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.050/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
222 m
115 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
20 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
82 days/yr
111 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
2 days/yr