NUTS-3 RO424 · Romania
Population
667,2252025
GDP
€15,847M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
66.5%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
8,681.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO424 · RO113
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Cluj (Opportunity 42). Runner-up: Timiş (41). Contrarian pick: Timiş — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 82).
#1Cluj
Strengths
Cost advantage (96) · Economic base (83)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Air quality (EU bottom 15%)
#2Timiş
Strengths
Cost advantage (94) · Demographic outlook (82)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Cluj
Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%); Air quality (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 2) — Timiş may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Cluj 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
40.7
41.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
26.5
34.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
26.4
23.2
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
6.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
41.0
44.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
33.8
13.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
47.2
45.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
4.2% 5y
4.1% 5y
Population
1.1% 5y
0.3% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.1% 5y
8.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€23,751
€26,948
Population density
77 /km²
105 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 89 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€14,360M
€17,030M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€395M
€193M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,734M
€2,762M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€3,350M
€2,193M
GVA — construction (F)
€662M
€1,267M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€5,382M
€6,813M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€9,900
€9,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
39,500 PPS
44,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€23,800
€27,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€5,950M
€8,805M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€880M
€1,026M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,679M
€16,038M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€682M
€1,022M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€2,301M
€3,544M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€1,847M
€3,378M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,340M
€2,616M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€12,322M
€14,059M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€55,811
€58,674
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€3,403M
€4,349M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
316,090
356,560
Self-employed persons
26,500
43,270
Employment in manufacturing (C)
99,820
66,190
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
64.5%
68.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
31.2%
28.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.1%
5.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
279,900
310,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
43,520
58,982
Enterprise births
5,632
7,271
Enterprise deaths
3,259
4,497
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.8%
5.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.2%
0.3%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.5%
3.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.6%
0.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
19.4%
18.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
17.3%
22.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.3%
7.5%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.9%
15.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.1%
7.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.0%
94.5%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
697,364
1,200,481
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
476 /1k
436 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
11,564 kt
9,358 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
1,042
109
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
8 km/1000km²
3 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
156
16
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
27
12
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)
436,278
455,317
Population aged 65+
126,363
137,100
Population aged under 15
104,584
104,957
Median age of population
42.1 yrs
42.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
29.0%
30.1%
Crude rate of total population change
5.5 /1k
5.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
8.4 /1k
8.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.1 /1k
8.1 /1k
Crude death rate
11.0 /1k
11.4 /1k
Live births
5,370
5,623
Deaths
7,289
7,913
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
52.9%
53.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.29
1.22
Population density (persons per km²)
77 /km²
105 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
539,223
499,208
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.2%
27.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
76.4 yrs
76.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
11.9%
15.6%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
805 /100k
753 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,939 /100k
1,857 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
255 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.1 /100k
0.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
20.9 /100k
15.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
200 /100k
128 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
543 /100k
153 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
68 /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)
120 m
429 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
30 days/yr
16 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
61 days/yr
107 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
3 days/yr