NUTS-3 RO116 · Romania
Population
211,1402025
GDP
€2,938M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
70.3%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
3,857.9 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO116 · LV009
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Zemgale (Opportunity 29). Runner-up: Sălaj (25). Contrarian pick: Sălaj — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 96).
#1Zemgale
Strengths
Freight intensity (86) · Cost advantage (84)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
#2Sălaj
Strengths
Cost advantage (96) · Industrial base (73)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Zemgale
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 1) — Sălaj may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Zemgale 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
25.3
28.5
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
56.3
31.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
24.1
32.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
26.7
50.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
13.8
56.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
49.0
55.6
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.8% 5y
1.3% 5y
Population
0.1% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.8% 5y
1.1% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€13,915
€13,818
Population density
55 /km²
21 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 86 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€2,662M
€2,696M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€112M
€334M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€657M
€719M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€616M
€502M
GVA — construction (F)
€225M
€161M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€663M
€527M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€9,100
€12,000
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
23,100 PPS
17,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€13,900
€13,600
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€8,805M
€9,718M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€1,026M
€1,006M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€16,038M
€21,296M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€294M
€203M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€39M
€25M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€445M
€326M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€561M
€630M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,198M
€2,501M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€33,721
€37,386
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€680M
€784M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
96,990
91,010
Self-employed persons
27,320
12,680
Employment in manufacturing (C)
18,180
14,990
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
68.4%
77.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
28.3%
14.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.8%
6.9%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
90,800
113,800
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
12,203
11,689
Enterprise births
1,256
1,573
Enterprise deaths
923
792
3-year enterprise survival rate
8.9%
5.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.3%
0.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
3.3%
5.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.2%
0.8%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
18.6%
40.7%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
22.8%
44.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
7.5%
11.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
15.4%
24.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.1%
8.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
94.5%
94.1%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
75,068
191,739
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
436 /1k
424 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,051 kt
11,057 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
230
2,498
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
109
1,126
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
3 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
65
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)
133,106
139,736
Population aged 65+
43,140
47,918
Population aged under 15
34,894
34,277
Median age of population
44.2 yrs
44.4 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
32.4%
34.3%
Crude rate of total population change
2.3 /1k
-11.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
6.3 /1k
-4.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
9.3 /1k
6.9 /1k
Crude death rate
13.4 /1k
14.2 /1k
Live births
1,970
1,551
Deaths
2,822
3,173
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
58.6%
58.8%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.80
1.34
Population density (persons per km²)
55 /km²
21 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
151,685
108,221
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
27.5%
24.7%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
76.6 yrs
76.4 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
15.6%
22.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
753 /100k
—
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,857 /100k
1,728 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
255 /100k
278 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
2.7 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
6.7 /100k
8.0 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
93.5 /100k
129 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
149 /100k
514 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
65 /M
60 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.73
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.96
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
1.01
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.78
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.114/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.050/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
326 m
29 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
12 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
87 days/yr
108 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
2 days/yr