NUTS-3 RO215 · Romania
Population
645,9302025
GDP
€6,405M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
69.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
8,557.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO215 · HU323
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg (Opportunity 37). Runner-up: Suceava (30). Contrarian pick: Suceava — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 98).
Strengths
Cost advantage (94) · Industrial base (69)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Energy cost (EU bottom 15%)
#2Suceava
Strengths
Cost advantage (98) · Resilience (64)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%); Energy cost (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Energy cost (EU pctl 2) — Suceava may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg 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
30.3
37.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
64.3
37.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
17.8
23.2
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
30.7
41.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
16.8
23.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
54.2
68.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.0% 5y
1.6% 5y
Population
0.7% 5y
0.8% 5y
Unemployment rate
13.7% 5y
7.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€9,917
€12,520
Population density
75 /km²
88 /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)
€5,804M
€5,600M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€507M
€503M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€945M
€1,336M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€835M
€1,233M
GVA — construction (F)
€420M
€428M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,622M
€961M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,200
€9,300
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
16,500 PPS
17,600 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€9,900
€12,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€7,628M
€7,214M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€620M
€3,008M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€12,735M
€7,834M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€602M
€467M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€69M
€80M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€945M
€814M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,366M
€1,558M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€4,348M
€4,918M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€24,768
€39,248
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,486M
€2,293M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
287,890
175,520
Self-employed persons
111,030
21,960
Employment in manufacturing (C)
26,430
43,200
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
65.9%
77.0%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
18.0%
15.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.7%
6.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
268,000
261,400
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
24,771
22,646
Enterprise births
2,686
2,297
Enterprise deaths
1,417
642
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.5%
6.2%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.3%
0.8%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.4%
4.3%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.2%
0.6%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
13.4%
23.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
19.0%
26.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.0%
11.0%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
13.0%
17.5%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
5.8%
6.1%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.0%
91.2%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,096,195
442,537
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
344 /1k
395 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
5,284 kt
7,380 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
116
3,072
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
1 km/1000km²
15 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
18
590
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
43
64
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
2
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
406,851
338,252
Population aged 65+
115,421
97,037
Population aged under 15
123,658
85,262
Median age of population
40.5 yrs
42.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
28.4%
28.7%
Crude rate of total population change
1.1 /1k
-7.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.7 /1k
-5.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
10.1 /1k
10.4 /1k
Crude death rate
11.7 /1k
13.0 /1k
Live births
6,544
5,442
Deaths
7,555
6,772
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
58.8%
53.9%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.81
1.77
Population density (persons per km²)
76 /km²
89 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
630,403
445,818
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
30.3%
28.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
75.5 yrs
75.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
23.4%
22.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
668 /100k
603 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,885 /100k
1,761 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
246 /100k
335 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
1.4 /100k
1.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
8.1 /100k
8.6 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
115 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
164 /100k
642 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
87 /M
60 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.66
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.29
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.24
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.04
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.67
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.171/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
494 m
113 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
5 days/yr
28 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
110 days/yr
78 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
3 days/yr