NUTS-3 RO412 · Romania
Population
307,7022025
GDP
€6,197M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
6.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
61.7%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
5,570.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO412 · ITG18
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Ragusa (Opportunity 39). Runner-up: Gorj (31). Contrarian pick: Gorj — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 97).
#1Ragusa
Strengths
Demographic outlook (86) · Cost advantage (71)
Red flags
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%)
Long-run slide: down 15 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute)
#2Gorj
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Economic base (52)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Industrial base (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Ragusa
Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%); Industrial base (EU bottom 15%); Digital readiness (EU bottom 15%); Long-run slide: down 15 EU ranks in real GDP per head since 1995 (relative decline, not absolute). Its weakest dimension is Labour market (EU pctl 1) — Gorj may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Ragusa · Manufacturing → Gorj · Office → Gorj · Residential → Ragusa.
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
30.9
38.9
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
24.8
52.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
25.7
30.8
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
19.7
19.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
10.5
7.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
46.0
60.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.3% 5y
3.9% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.3% 5y
6.9% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€20,140
€22,083
Population density
55 /km²
199 /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)
€5,616M
€6,374M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€141M
€595M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,264M
€611M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€309M
€479M
GVA — construction (F)
€509M
€518M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,247M
€1,534M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,500
€16,800
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
33,300 PPS
23,100 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€20,100
€22,300
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€4,369M
€24,161M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€531M
€2,214M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€8,535M
€40,753M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€361M
€933M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€33M
€101M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€698M
€1,568M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€756M
€1,548M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€3,757M
€6,658M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€45,884
€60,063
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,153M
€1,626M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
150,350
120,200
Self-employed persons
43,690
30,400
Employment in manufacturing (C)
11,240
9,300
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
60.8%
54.1%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
32.8%
33.8%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.8%
12.2%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
125,600
115,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
12,500
21,511
Enterprise births
1,304
1,676
Enterprise deaths
820
1,195
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.4%
4.6%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.2%
1.0%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.9%
2.6%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.1%
0.7%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
16.8%
16.9%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
20.4%
24.0%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
3.0%
7.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
15.3%
15.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.5%
3.9%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.3%
90.9%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
203,047
1,417,268
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
428 /1k
733 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
4,477 kt
7,673 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
90
5
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
0 km/1000km²
28 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
29
2
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
84
72
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)
206,600
207,704
Population aged 65+
61,773
70,072
Population aged under 15
39,329
43,524
Median age of population
46.4 yrs
45.5 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
29.9%
33.7%
Crude rate of total population change
-7.6 /1k
6.4 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
-0.9 /1k
8.4 /1k
Crude birth rate
6.0 /1k
7.6 /1k
Crude death rate
12.7 /1k
9.6 /1k
Live births
1,867
2,441
Deaths
3,935
3,078
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
48.9%
54.7%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.17
1.35
Population density (persons per km²)
56 /km²
198 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
123,875
340,333
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
36.0%
44.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
76.9 yrs
82.6 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
27.8%
38.4%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
718 /100k
288 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,743 /100k
1,031 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
189 /100k
209 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
1.6 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
7.4 /100k
20.1 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
81.0 /100k
—
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
135 /100k
855 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
111 /M
50 /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
0.60
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.57
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.57
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.41
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.159/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.048/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
282 m
560 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
22 days/yr
36 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
86 days/yr
2 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
7 days/yr
5 days/yr