NUTS-3 RO314 · Romania
Population
261,1982025
GDP
€2,268M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
8.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
68.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
3,555.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO314 · HR062
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Varaždinska županija (Opportunity 37). Runner-up: Giurgiu (27). Contrarian pick: Giurgiu — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 98).
Strengths
Industrial base (94) · Cost advantage (91)
Red flags
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Giurgiu
Strengths
Cost advantage (98) · Energy cost (52)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Flood: 23% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Why you might not pick Varaždinska županija
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Digital readiness (EU pctl 2) — Giurgiu may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Varaždinska županija 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
37.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
45.3
29.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
19.1
36.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
39.3
31.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
16.0
14.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
46.2
71.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.4% 5y
4.0% 5y
Population
0.2% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
7.8% 5y
9.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€8,683
€18,797
Population density
73 /km²
126 /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)
€2,055M
€2,476M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€208M
€126M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€258M
€923M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€173M
€853M
GVA — construction (F)
€283M
€171M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€465M
€488M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,400
€10,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
14,500 PPS
26,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€8,700
€18,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€7,781M
€3,296M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,628M
€1,033M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€12,452M
€6,092M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€221M
€101M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€16M
€99M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€343M
€302M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€498M
€465M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€1,403M
€2,362M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€33,122
€42,120
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€540M
€755M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
76,230
75,620
Self-employed persons
18,940
8,980
Employment in manufacturing (C)
6,080
24,640
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
68.4%
72.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
39.3%
12.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
8.6%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
114,500
76,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
8,204
7,858
Enterprise births
1,080
914
Enterprise deaths
582
366
3-year enterprise survival rate
7.0%
5.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.4%
1.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.5%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.2%
0.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
14.0%
22.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
16.7%
32.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
11.4%
4.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
11.8%
17.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
4.6%
6.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.7%
87.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
77,159
239,270
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
403 /1k
500 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,337 kt
3,762 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
43
28
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
9 km/1000km²
31 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
17
18
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
43
59
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
1
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
167,529
103,552
Population aged 65+
55,535
34,555
Population aged under 15
38,134
20,753
Median age of population
45.4 yrs
45.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.1%
33.4%
Crude rate of total population change
9.8 /1k
-0.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
16.2 /1k
5.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.9 /1k
7.4 /1k
Crude death rate
14.3 /1k
13.4 /1k
Live births
2,047
1,181
Deaths
3,718
2,131
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.9%
53.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.57
1.35
Population density (persons per km²)
75 /km²
—
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
150,448
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
27.5%
17.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
76.3 yrs
78.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
19.3%
16.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
542 /100k
465 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,895 /100k
1,622 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
207 /100k
305 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
1.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
8.1 /100k
8.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
121 /100k
155 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
217 /100k
194 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
76 /M
42 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.30
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.43
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.11
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.73
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.126/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
95 m
170 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
39 days/yr
17 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
66 days/yr
60 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
8 days/yr