NUTS-3 HR032 · Croatia
Population
43,2002025
GDP
€811M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.5%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
73.8%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
5,336.8 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
HR032 · EL412
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Ličko-senjska županija (Opportunity 30). Runner-up: Ικαρία, Σάμος (19). Contrarian pick: Ικαρία, Σάμος — leads the set on Demographic outlook (EU pctl 100).
Strengths
Cost advantage (90) · Air quality (86)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Strengths
Demographic outlook (100) · Cost advantage (88)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Resilience (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Ličko-senjska županija
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Industrial base (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Digital readiness (EU pctl 0) — Ικαρία, Σάμος may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Ličko-senjska županija · Manufacturing → Ličko-senjska županija · Office → Ικαρία, Σάμος · Residential → Ικαρία, Σάμος.
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
30.2
18.8
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
35.3
13.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
30.6
32.0
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
85.7
—
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
23.3
17.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
36.5
12.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
79.0
41.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
7.2% 5y
3.6% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.6% 5y
Unemployment rate
5.2% 5y
17.5% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€18,772
€14,811
Population density
8 /km²
55 /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)
€672M
€556M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€70M
€12M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€55M
€49M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€19M
€24M
GVA — construction (F)
€102M
€11M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€184M
€175M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€11,000
€11,200
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
26,300 PPS
16,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€18,800
€12,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€7,641M
€652M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€658M
€19M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€13,216M
€1,148M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€84M
€86M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€14M
€4M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€113M
€132M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€148M
€178M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€644M
€578M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€45,125
€36,648
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€248M
€164M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
19,170
18,780
Self-employed persons
3,340
7,750
Employment in manufacturing (C)
1,510
850
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
72.4%
68.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
18.0%
31.9%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.6%
6.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
19,600
17,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
2,029
4,055
Enterprise births
256
260
Enterprise deaths
98
81
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.3%
3.8%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.7%
1.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
2.8%
—
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.6%
1.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
31.1%
21.3%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
43.1%
19.1%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
6.5%
5.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
23.9%
12.9%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.5%
7.7%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
87.1%
—
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,966,687
1,377,316
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
549 /1k
302 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
1,085 kt
143 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
13
—
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
27 km/1000km²
0 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
30
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
68
70
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
26,445
26,965
Population aged 65+
11,151
11,301
Population aged under 15
5,604
4,744
Median age of population
48.3 yrs
46.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
42.2%
41.9%
Crude rate of total population change
8.7 /1k
12.8 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
18.9 /1k
18.8 /1k
Crude birth rate
8.0 /1k
6.0 /1k
Crude death rate
18.3 /1k
12.0 /1k
Live births
346
255
Deaths
785
511
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
63.4%
59.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.55
1.39
Population density (persons per km²)
8 /km²
56 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
22,811
93,018
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.6%
27.9%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
79.9 yrs
83.0 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
19.0%
22.5%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
531 /100k
335 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,391 /100k
861 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
295 /100k
199 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
2.3 /100k
2.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
9.3 /100k
4.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
269 /100k
25.9 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
483 /100k
104 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
75 /M
98 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.72
0.56
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.30
0.42
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.43
0.49
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.11
0.32
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.73
0.24
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.126/kWh
€0.143/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.048/kWh
€0.039/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
691 m
518 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
13 days/yr
41 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
86 days/yr
7 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
17 days/yr
15 days/yr