NUTS-3 BG344 · Bulgaria
Population
288,7362025
GDP
€6,473M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
4.6%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
75%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
5,155 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
BG344 · RO423
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Стара Загора (Opportunity 34). Runner-up: Hunedoara (30). Contrarian pick: Hunedoara — leads the set on Digital readiness (EU pctl 60).
Strengths
Cost advantage (100) · Industrial base (75)
Red flags
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Resilience (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (94) · Digital readiness (60)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Стара Загора
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%); Resilience (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 0) — Hunedoara may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Стара Загора 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
34.0
29.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
8.8
38.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
27.1
25.8
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
22.0
19.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
21.3
33.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
57.8
45.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.5% 5y
3.9% 5y
Population
0.7% 5y
1.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
0.0% 5y
2.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€22,417
€14,967
Population density
56 /km²
50 /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)
€5,647M
€4,764M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€97M
€135M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€3,699M
€902M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,343M
€719M
GVA — construction (F)
€151M
€421M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€636M
€1,434M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€6,200
€9,900
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
36,200 PPS
24,700 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€22,400
€14,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€1,872M
€5,950M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€382M
€880M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€4,209M
€11,679M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€272M
€594M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€28M
€40M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€450M
€914M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€614M
€957M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,811M
€4,088M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€55,460
€44,510
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,205M
€1,129M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
148,540
131,490
Self-employed persons
34,720
11,900
Employment in manufacturing (C)
36,090
31,790
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
72.5%
64.5%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
16.3%
31.2%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
4.5%
5.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
130,500
143,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
14,865
16,903
Enterprise births
1,411
1,765
Enterprise deaths
2,119
1,238
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.9%
5.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.3%
1.2%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.4%
6.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.4%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
30.9%
19.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
33.5%
17.3%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
4.3%
10.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.4%
18.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.4%
9.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
91.6%
96.0%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
657,087
342,220
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
450 /1k
476 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
10,024 kt
5,349 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
—
121
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
11 km/1000km²
8 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
—
34
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
69
92
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)
174,874
222,856
Population aged 65+
71,604
83,666
Population aged under 15
42,258
44,731
Median age of population
47.8 yrs
49.0 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
40.9%
37.5%
Crude rate of total population change
-5.6 /1k
-10.3 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
1.9 /1k
-0.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.8 /1k
6.0 /1k
Crude death rate
16.3 /1k
15.4 /1k
Live births
2,546
2,131
Deaths
4,719
5,440
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
65.1%
57.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.94
1.31
Population density (persons per km²)
57 /km²
50 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
207,025
185,576
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
35.8%
20.2%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
75.7 yrs
76.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
27.0%
11.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
797 /100k
805 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
2,099 /100k
1,939 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
215 /100k
249 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
0.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
16.5 /100k
16.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
62.0 /100k
145 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
365 /100k
433 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
79 /M
68 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
-0.07
0.20
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.25
0.39
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
-0.10
0.44
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
-0.14
0.07
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.33
0.55
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.135/kWh
€0.155/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.041/kWh
€0.051/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
386 m
285 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
34 days/yr
15 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
63 days/yr
83 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
4 days/yr