NUTS-3 RO222 · Romania
Population
395,5172025
GDP
€4,778M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
62.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
6,090.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO222 · RO414
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Buzău (Opportunity 27). Runner-up: Olt (25). Contrarian pick: Olt — leads the set on Industrial base (EU pctl 74).
#1Buzău
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Freight intensity (71)
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%)
#2Olt
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Industrial base (74)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Buzău
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 Demographic outlook (EU pctl 2) — Olt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Buzău · Manufacturing → Buzău · Office → Olt · Residential → Buzău.
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
27.3
24.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
39.8
40.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
15.5
16.1
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
25.3
34.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
13.5
10.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
40.8
38.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.5% 5y
1.0% 5y
Population
0.7% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.8% 5y
6.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€12,080
€10,735
Population density
65 /km²
68 /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)
€4,330M
€3,654M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€258M
€296M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,051M
€925M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€837M
€863M
GVA — construction (F)
€295M
€366M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,017M
€701M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,700
€7,500
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
20,000 PPS
17,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€12,000
€10,700
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€6,740M
€4,369M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€569M
€531M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,406M
€8,535M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€602M
€282M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€26M
€53M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€886M
€524M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€824M
€842M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,086M
€2,445M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€33,679
€28,515
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,102M
€750M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
157,930
157,430
Self-employed persons
45,060
61,250
Employment in manufacturing (C)
32,080
28,060
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
63.8%
60.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
31.4%
32.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.3%
6.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
157,900
147,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
16,603
11,978
Enterprise births
1,642
1,240
Enterprise deaths
1,134
826
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.7%
5.7%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.1%
0.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
0.8%
1.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.1%
0.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
14.1%
16.8%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
16.4%
20.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
3.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
13.4%
15.3%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.4%
7.5%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.4%
95.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
215,902
87,509
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
415 /1k
428 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
15,162 kt
3,459 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
876
85
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
5 km/1000km²
0 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
222
23
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
94
46
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)
247,970
242,487
Population aged 65+
92,591
85,296
Population aged under 15
54,956
47,858
Median age of population
47.1 yrs
47.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
37.3%
35.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-7.1 /1k
-2.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
1.9 /1k
6.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.6 /1k
6.2 /1k
Crude death rate
15.5 /1k
15.2 /1k
Live births
2,602
2,341
Deaths
6,170
5,728
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.5%
54.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.37
1.29
Population density (persons per km²)
66 /km²
70 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
204,980
169,504
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
38.0%
36.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
75.7 yrs
76.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
25.1%
27.8%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
638 /100k
718 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,908 /100k
1,743 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
233 /100k
189 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.5 /100k
2.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
5.5 /100k
3.2 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
91.4 /100k
71.4 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
128 /100k
97.5 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
94 /M
111 /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)
292 m
140 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
21 days/yr
39 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
88 days/yr
65 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
4 days/yr