NUTS-3 RO415 · Romania
Population
340,2362025
GDP
€4,872M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
6.9%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
61.7%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
5,771.4 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO415 · RO222
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Vâlcea (Opportunity 28). Runner-up: Buzău (27). Contrarian pick: Buzău — leads the set on Freight intensity (EU pctl 71).
#1Vâlcea
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Energy cost (52)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Freight intensity (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
#2Buzău
Strengths
Cost advantage (97) · Freight intensity (71)
Red flags
Economic base (EU bottom 15%)
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Talent & skills (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Why you might not pick Vâlcea
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 Governance (EU pctl 2) — Buzău may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
The leader depends on the mandate: Logistics → Buzău · Manufacturing → Buzău · Office → Vâlcea · Residential → Vâlcea.
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
28.2
27.3
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
40.0
39.8
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
21.7
15.5
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
21.3
25.3
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
10.5
13.5
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
43.0
40.8
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.4% 5y
0.5% 5y
Population
0.5% 5y
0.7% 5y
Unemployment rate
6.3% 5y
8.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€14,318
€12,080
Population density
59 /km²
65 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 87 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€4,414M
€4,330M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€180M
€258M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,068M
€1,051M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€705M
€837M
GVA — construction (F)
€425M
€295M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,259M
€1,017M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€7,500
€7,700
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
23,700 PPS
20,000 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€14,300
€12,000
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€4,369M
€6,740M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€531M
€569M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€8,535M
€11,406M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€397M
€602M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€34M
€26M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€684M
€886M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€798M
€824M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€2,953M
€3,086M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€34,341
€33,679
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€907M
€1,102M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
157,920
157,930
Self-employed persons
49,110
45,060
Employment in manufacturing (C)
23,360
32,080
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
60.8%
63.8%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
32.8%
31.4%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
6.8%
11.3%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
130,000
157,900
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
15,049
16,603
Enterprise births
1,645
1,642
Enterprise deaths
952
1,134
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.7%
6.7%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
0.2%
0.1%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
1.9%
0.8%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.1%
0.1%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
16.8%
14.1%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
20.4%
16.4%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
3.0%
9.2%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
15.3%
13.4%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
7.5%
6.4%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
95.3%
93.4%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
1,436,997
215,902
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
428 /1k
415 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
3,816 kt
15,162 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
66
876
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
0 km/1000km²
5 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
19
222
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
82
94
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)
213,952
247,970
Population aged 65+
82,768
92,591
Population aged under 15
43,516
54,956
Median age of population
48.3 yrs
47.1 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
38.7%
37.3%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.2 /1k
-7.1 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
2.7 /1k
1.9 /1k
Crude birth rate
5.8 /1k
6.6 /1k
Crude death rate
9.6 /1k
15.5 /1k
Live births
1,966
2,602
Deaths
3,280
6,170
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
59.0%
59.5%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.21
1.37
Population density (persons per km²)
60 /km²
66 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
163,604
204,980
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
36.0%
38.0%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
76.9 yrs
75.7 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
27.8%
25.1%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
718 /100k
638 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,743 /100k
1,908 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
189 /100k
233 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.0 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
9.1 /100k
5.5 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
98.0 /100k
91.4 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
195 /100k
128 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
111 /M
94 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.20
0.20
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.39
0.39
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.44
0.44
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
0.07
0.07
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.55
0.55
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.155/kWh
€0.155/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.051/kWh
€0.051/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
442 m
292 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
11 days/yr
21 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
104 days/yr
88 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
8 days/yr
4 days/yr