NUTS-3 RO224 · Romania
Population
489,0562025
GDP
€5,618M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
62.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
4,470.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO224 · RO121
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Alba (Opportunity 39). Runner-up: Galaţi (27). Contrarian pick: Galaţi — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 97).
#1Alba
Strengths
Cost advantage (95) · Industrial base (81)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Galaţi
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Energy cost (52)
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 Alba
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 2) — Galaţi may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Alba 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
26.5
39.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
41.3
42.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
17.8
28.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
15.7
32.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
13.5
24.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
40.2
77.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.2% 5y
1.4% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.8% 5y
10.4% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€11,488
€16,831
Population density
109 /km²
52 /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)
€5,091M
€4,961M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€220M
€256M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€828M
€1,503M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€714M
€1,309M
GVA — construction (F)
€630M
€324M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,301M
€957M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,700
€9,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
19,000 PPS
27,900 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€11,400
€16,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€6,740M
€10,071M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€569M
€1,159M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,406M
€14,134M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€364M
€590M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€155M
€40M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€893M
€955M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,219M
€966M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,629M
€3,887M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€35,312
€43,034
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,296M
€1,601M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
177,120
141,610
Self-employed persons
26,880
28,420
Employment in manufacturing (C)
34,090
40,990
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
63.8%
66.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
31.4%
24.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.3%
4.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
197,300
136,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
19,392
18,404
Enterprise births
2,191
2,204
Enterprise deaths
1,358
1,357
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.6%
6.7%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.1%
0.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
0.8%
2.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.1%
0.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
14.1%
19.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
16.4%
20.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
7.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
13.4%
18.2%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.4%
8.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.4%
97.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
193,000
453,216
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
415 /1k
433 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
6,403 kt
9,445 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
97
111
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
5 km/1000km²
6 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
20
34
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
104
49
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
0
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
309,943
207,576
Population aged 65+
105,255
71,514
Population aged under 15
73,858
46,170
Median age of population
45.6 yrs
45.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
34.0%
34.5%
Crude rate of total population change
-8.1 /1k
-1.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-1.3 /1k
4.3 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.0 /1k
7.1 /1k
Crude death rate
13.8 /1k
12.7 /1k
Live births
3,425
2,312
Deaths
6,756
4,138
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.8%
56.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.40
1.40
Population density (persons per km²)
112 /km²
52 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
281,672
194,902
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
38.0%
24.1%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
75.7 yrs
77.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
25.1%
19.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
638 /100k
749 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,908 /100k
1,780 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
233 /100k
236 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.4 /100k
0.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
6.9 /100k
10.4 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
94.7 /100k
107 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
130 /100k
149 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
94 /M
72 /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)
122 m
222 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
33 days/yr
20 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
77 days/yr
82 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
3 days/yr