NUTS-3 RO216 · Romania
Population
365,9772025
GDP
€3,064M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
69.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
5,307.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO216 · RO112
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Bistriţa-Năsăud (Opportunity 28). Runner-up: Vaslui (20). Contrarian pick: Vaslui — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 98).
Strengths
Cost advantage (96) · Resilience (70)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Vaslui
Strengths
Cost advantage (98) · Digital readiness (60)
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 Bistriţa-Năsăud
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 2) — Vaslui may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Bistriţa-Năsăud 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
20.2
28.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
41.8
69.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
15.9
23.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
19.3
22.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
16.8
13.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
44.0
57.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.4% 5y
3.0% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
1.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
13.7% 5y
8.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€8,373
€11,746
Population density
69 /km²
55 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 87 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€2,777M
€3,163M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€179M
€151M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€417M
€716M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€369M
€658M
GVA — construction (F)
€195M
€419M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€583M
€729M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,200
€9,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
13,800 PPS
19,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€8,300
€11,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€7,628M
€8,805M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€620M
€1,026M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€12,735M
€16,038M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€484M
€308M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€29M
€21M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€617M
€499M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€785M
€650M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,080M
€2,612M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€18,301
€29,805
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€711M
€808M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
186,380
130,390
Self-employed persons
104,220
37,040
Employment in manufacturing (C)
13,420
27,000
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
65.9%
68.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
18.0%
28.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.7%
5.8%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
151,400
131,700
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
10,790
13,634
Enterprise births
1,037
1,555
Enterprise deaths
728
938
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.6%
6.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.3%
0.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.4%
3.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.2%
0.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
13.4%
18.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
19.0%
22.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.0%
7.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
13.0%
15.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.8%
7.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.0%
94.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
58,443
180,584
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
344 /1k
436 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,038 kt
7,038 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
50
153
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
1 km/1000km²
3 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
14
52
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
69
76
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
3
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
229,793
193,210
Population aged 65+
72,350
53,351
Population aged under 15
63,834
50,650
Median age of population
43.0 yrs
41.8 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.5%
27.6%
Crude rate of total population change
-9.6 /1k
0.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-2.6 /1k
2.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.0 /1k
8.5 /1k
Crude death rate
14.0 /1k
10.7 /1k
Live births
2,560
2,530
Deaths
5,138
3,180
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.3%
53.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.41
1.50
Population density (persons per km²)
70 /km²
56 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
298,580
237,516
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
30.3%
27.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
75.5 yrs
76.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
23.4%
15.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
668 /100k
753 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,885 /100k
1,857 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
246 /100k
255 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.2 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
24.6 /100k
3.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
213 /100k
72.4 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
378 /100k
111 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
87 /M
65 /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)
87 m
519 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
4 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
76 days/yr
109 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
4 days/yr