NUTS-3 HR023 · Croatia
Population
60,5942025
GDP
€729M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
7.4%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
68.4%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
1,834.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
HR023 · SI035
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zasavska (Opportunity 34). Runner-up: Požeško-slavonska županija (24). Contrarian pick: Požeško-slavonska županija — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 93).
#1Zasavska
Strengths
Industrial base (84) · Cost advantage (72)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Cost advantage (93) · Energy cost (71)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Zasavska
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Economic base (EU pctl 8) — Požeško-slavonska županija may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Požeško-slavonska županija · Manufacturing → Zasavska · Office → Zasavska · Residential → Zasavska.
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
24.2
34.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
31.0
46.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
20.8
36.6
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
22.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
25.3
51.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
12.5
57.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
66.8
63.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
2.6% 5y
2.8% 5y
Population
1.7% 5y
0.0% 5y
Unemployment rate
10.1% 5y
2.6% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€12,026
€17,187
Population density
33 /km²
117 /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)
€604M
€869M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€51M
€21M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€125M
€271M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€100M
€243M
GVA — construction (F)
€37M
€98M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€100M
€146M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€10,300
€16,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
16,800 PPS
19,500 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€12,000
€17,100
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€3,386M
€6,367M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€560M
€1,605M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€7,231M
€14,558M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€67M
€99M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€15M
€11M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€97M
€177M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€194M
€156M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€573M
€804M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€31,995
€56,859
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€184M
€239M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
24,290
18,120
Self-employed persons
3,800
4,310
Employment in manufacturing (C)
4,880
4,260
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
68.1%
74.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
24.7%
13.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
7.1%
4.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
25,200
27,000
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
2,266
3,719
Enterprise births
273
358
Enterprise deaths
131
237
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.5%
5.3%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.5%
1.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.4%
4.9%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.3%
0.9%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
20.5%
31.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
31.9%
40.2%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
4.9%
20.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.1%
23.2%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.2%
8.3%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
—
92.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
64,611
21,427
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
476 /1k
592 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,488 kt
917 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
23
—
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
18 km/1000km²
26 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
38
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
61
38
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
4
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
37,234
35,590
Population aged 65+
14,887
13,647
Population aged under 15
8,473
7,846
Median age of population
47.0 yrs
46.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
40.0%
38.3%
Crude rate of total population change
-12.0 /1k
-2.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-5.2 /1k
1.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.8 /1k
7.7 /1k
Crude death rate
15.6 /1k
11.6 /1k
Live births
535
440
Deaths
953
663
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
62.7%
60.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.69
1.56
Population density (persons per km²)
34 /km²
119 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
—
41,769
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
30.0%
17.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
77.2 yrs
81.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
28.6%
16.2%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
561 /100k
340 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,784 /100k
1,141 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
308 /100k
285 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
3.3 /100k
3.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
45.7 /100k
135 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
122 /100k
449 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
92 /M
32 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.72
1.26
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.30
0.74
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.43
0.92
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.11
0.75
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.73
0.77
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.126/kWh
€0.132/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.051/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
167 m
452 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
23 days/yr
6 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
61 days/yr
75 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
14 days/yr