NUTS-3 RO124 · Romania
Population
291,8712025
GDP
€3,919M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
6,639.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO124 · PL922
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Ciechanowski (Opportunity 40). Runner-up: Harghita (33). Contrarian pick: Harghita — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 95).
Strengths
Freight intensity (95) · Industrial base (89)
Red flags
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
#2Harghita
Strengths
Cost advantage (95) · Digital readiness (80)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Ciechanowski
Governance (EU bottom 15%); Air quality (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Air quality (EU pctl 11) — Harghita may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Ciechanowski 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
33.4
40.4
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
35.8
34.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
24.2
28.7
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
11.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
17.7
36.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
24.3
16.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
72.4
66.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.1% 5y
2.8% 5y
Population
0.6% 5y
1.2% 5y
Unemployment rate
10.4% 5y
2.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€13,428
€16,496
Population density
44 /km²
60 /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)
€3,551M
€4,738M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€154M
€736M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€811M
€1,523M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€729M
€1,430M
GVA — construction (F)
€309M
€306M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€946M
€918M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€9,200
€12,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
22,300 PPS
23,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€13,400
€15,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€10,071M
€8,741M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,159M
€3,241M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€14,134M
€12,664M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€331M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€47M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€554M
€518M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€778M
€737M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,783M
€4,417M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€42,598
€50,503
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,146M
€1,316M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
102,420
128,000
Self-employed persons
20,140
38,800
Employment in manufacturing (C)
23,970
24,600
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
66.3%
75.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
24.2%
14.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.1%
4.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
123,100
155,100
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
16,140
17,617
Enterprise births
1,412
1,836
Enterprise deaths
935
2,278
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.8%
5.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.4%
0.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.8%
1.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
0.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
19.7%
31.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
20.6%
36.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
7.8%
4.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.2%
17.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.9%
5.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
97.4%
97.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
431,198
124,117
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
433 /1k
665 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,444 kt
20,044 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
97
24
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
33
8
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
6 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
100
44
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
186,670
204,679
Population aged 65+
57,686
65,057
Population aged under 15
47,515
48,123
Median age of population
43.1 yrs
43.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
30.9%
31.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.9 /1k
-6.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.5 /1k
-1.7 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.0 /1k
7.5 /1k
Crude death rate
12.4 /1k
12.6 /1k
Live births
2,618
2,391
Deaths
3,625
4,021
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
56.4%
55.3%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.64
1.30
Population density (persons per km²)
44 /km²
61 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
196,085
211,919
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
24.1%
16.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
77.0 yrs
77.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
19.1%
15.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
749 /100k
413 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,780 /100k
1,650 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
236 /100k
274 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.4 /100k
0.9 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
5.8 /100k
5.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
87.6 /100k
125 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
117 /100k
170 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
72 /M
92 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.52
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.69
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.35
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.67
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.54
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.113/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.064/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
788 m
117 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
0 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
133 days/yr
90 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
2 days/yr