NUTS-3 RO226 · Romania
Population
331,2362025
GDP
€3,515M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
11.3%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
62.1%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
4,856.2 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO226 · PL623
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Vrancea (Opportunity 27). Runner-up: Ełcki (27). Contrarian pick: Ełcki — leads the set on Energy cost (EU pctl 79).
#1Vrancea
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Resilience (60)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Ełcki
Strengths
Cost advantage (92) · Energy cost (79)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Connectivity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Vrancea
Economic base (EU bottom 15%); Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%). Its weakest dimension is Demographic outlook (EU pctl 2) — Ełcki may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Vrancea 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
27.1
27.0
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
60.0
33.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
15.5
32.8
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
—
44.7
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
23.7
14.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
13.5
21.8
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
55.8
53.2
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
0.3% 5y
2.8% 5y
Population
0.8% 5y
1.9% 5y
Unemployment rate
8.8% 5y
0.0% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€10,611
€11,806
Population density
68 /km²
40 /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)
€3,185M
€2,710M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€219M
€290M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€610M
€616M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€532M
€508M
GVA — construction (F)
€303M
€215M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€703M
€577M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,700
€10,600
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
17,600 PPS
17,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€10,600
€11,500
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€6,740M
€3,635M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€569M
€684M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,406M
€7,205M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€488M
—
GVA — information & communication (J)
€31M
—
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€677M
€390M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€673M
€622M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,270M
€2,618M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€36,233
€36,902
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€811M
€689M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
107,980
99,800
Self-employed persons
28,190
20,900
Employment in manufacturing (C)
23,520
19,400
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
63.8%
71.9%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
31.4%
17.5%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
11.3%
3.4%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
133,600
118,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
12,186
13,323
Enterprise births
1,243
1,423
Enterprise deaths
812
1,961
3-year enterprise survival rate
6.5%
5.5%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.1%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
0.8%
2.0%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.1%
0.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
14.1%
31.4%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
16.4%
33.5%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
5.8%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
13.4%
20.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
6.4%
6.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
93.4%
93.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
100,695
962,816
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
415 /1k
597 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,825 kt
9,206 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
347
463
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
5 km/1000km²
0 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
105
182
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
81
147
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
0
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
209,843
164,238
Population aged 65+
69,651
52,886
Population aged under 15
51,742
36,947
Median age of population
44.5 yrs
43.9 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
33.2%
32.2%
Crude rate of total population change
-3.2 /1k
-7.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.3 /1k
-3.0 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.6 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude death rate
13.1 /1k
11.3 /1k
Live births
2,516
1,639
Deaths
4,345
2,887
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
57.8%
54.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.47
1.16
Population density (persons per km²)
69 /km²
44 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
201,958
180,417
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
38.0%
19.6%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
75.7 yrs
77.9 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
25.1%
18.0%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
638 /100k
584 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,908 /100k
1,595 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
233 /100k
255 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.3 /100k
0.4 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
9.0 /100k
14.8 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
116 /100k
160 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
143 /100k
162 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
94 /M
63 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.52
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.69
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.35
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.67
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.54
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.113/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.064/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
313 m
146 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
11 days/yr
3 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
88 days/yr
96 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
6 days/yr
3 days/yr