NUTS-3 RO225 · Romania
Population
187,6192025
GDP
€2,877M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
62.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
8,466.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO225 · HR062
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Varaždinska županija (Opportunity 37). Runner-up: Tulcea (19). Contrarian pick: Tulcea — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 97).
Strengths
Industrial base (94) · Cost advantage (91)
Red flags
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Tulcea
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Energy cost (52)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Varaždinska županija
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Digital readiness (EU pctl 2) — Tulcea may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Varaždinska županija 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
18.7
37.2
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
41.8
29.3
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
15.0
36.0
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
13.3
31.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
13.5
14.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
43.8
71.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.4% 5y
4.0% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.8% 5y
9.7% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€15,336
€18,797
Population density
22 /km²
126 /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)
€2,607M
€2,476M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€217M
€126M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€596M
€923M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€360M
€853M
GVA — construction (F)
€207M
€171M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€543M
€488M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,700
€10,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
25,300 PPS
26,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€15,300
€18,800
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€6,740M
€3,296M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€569M
€1,033M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,406M
€6,092M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€327M
€101M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€37M
€99M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€492M
€302M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€552M
€465M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€1,858M
€2,362M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€34,487
€42,120
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€664M
€755M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
92,880
75,620
Self-employed persons
30,130
8,980
Employment in manufacturing (C)
14,840
24,640
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
63.8%
72.6%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
31.4%
12.6%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.3%
3.0%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
75,800
76,200
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
7,331
7,858
Enterprise births
775
914
Enterprise deaths
428
366
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.5%
5.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.1%
1.9%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
0.8%
4.4%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.1%
0.4%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
14.1%
22.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
16.4%
32.6%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
4.3%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
13.4%
17.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.4%
6.0%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.4%
87.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
354,637
239,270
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
415 /1k
500 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,437 kt
3,762 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
18
28
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
5 km/1000km²
31 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
10
18
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
85
59
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)
119,149
103,552
Population aged 65+
42,055
34,555
Population aged under 15
26,415
20,753
Median age of population
46.9 yrs
45.2 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
35.3%
33.4%
Crude rate of total population change
-9.1 /1k
-0.6 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
0.1 /1k
5.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.3 /1k
7.4 /1k
Crude death rate
15.5 /1k
13.4 /1k
Live births
1,185
1,181
Deaths
2,930
2,131
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.5%
53.4%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.38
1.35
Population density (persons per km²)
27 /km²
—
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
92,001
—
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
38.0%
17.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
75.7 yrs
78.5 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
25.1%
16.9%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
638 /100k
465 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,908 /100k
1,622 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
233 /100k
305 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.5 /100k
1.3 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
13.2 /100k
8.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
115 /100k
155 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
148 /100k
194 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
94 /M
42 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.72
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.30
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.43
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.11
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.73
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.126/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
67 m
170 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
27 days/yr
17 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
53 days/yr
60 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
3 days/yr
8 days/yr