NUTS-3 RO421 · Romania
Population
410,3202025
GDP
€6,825M2024
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
5.1%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
66.5%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
7,755.1 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
RO421 · RO313
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Arad (Opportunity 33). Runner-up: Dâmboviţa (33). Contrarian pick: Dâmboviţa — leads the set on Cost advantage (EU pctl 98).
#1Arad
Strengths
Cost advantage (94) · Industrial base (76)
Red flags
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%)
Labour market (EU bottom 15%)
Governance (EU bottom 15%)
Flood: 21% of population in the 100-year floodplain
Strengths
Cost advantage (98) · Industrial base (75)
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 Arad
Demographic outlook (EU bottom 15%); Labour market (EU bottom 15%); Governance (EU bottom 15%); Flood: 21% of population in the 100-year floodplain. Its weakest dimension is Governance (EU pctl 2) — Dâmboviţa may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Arad 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
- Flood defences, return-period design and insurance for flagged regions
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
33.4
32.7
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
49.0
36.5
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
26.4
20.6
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
24.3
33.0
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
33.8
16.0
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
49.0
43.0
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
3.3% 5y
1.3% 5y
Population
0.3% 5y
0.4% 5y
Unemployment rate
2.1% 5y
7.8% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€16,634
€12,244
Population density
53 /km²
118 /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)
€6,185M
€5,287M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€302M
€254M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€1,828M
€1,374M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€1,514M
€1,256M
GVA — construction (F)
€488M
€271M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€1,494M
€1,634M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€9,900
€7,400
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
27,600 PPS
20,300 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€16,600
€12,200
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€5,950M
€7,781M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€880M
€1,628M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€11,679M
€12,452M
GVA — real estate activities (L)
€477M
€503M
GVA — information & communication (J)
€98M
€69M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€982M
€821M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€1,090M
€934M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€5,307M
€3,610M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€44,089
€44,949
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€1,466M
€1,390M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
172,330
144,500
Self-employed persons
15,320
21,710
Employment in manufacturing (C)
62,170
35,430
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
64.5%
68.4%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
31.2%
39.3%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
5.1%
8.6%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
169,700
212,600
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
24,186
18,402
Enterprise births
2,580
2,141
Enterprise deaths
1,599
1,386
3-year enterprise survival rate
5.8%
6.0%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.2%
0.4%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
6.5%
1.5%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.6%
0.2%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
19.4%
14.0%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
17.3%
16.7%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
10.3%
11.4%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
18.9%
11.8%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
9.1%
4.6%
Digital
Households with internet access ·N2
96.0%
94.7%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
333,970
263,793
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
476 /1k
403 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
11,766 kt
3,721 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
136
437
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
8 km/1000km²
9 km/1000km²
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
33
92
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
69
62
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
2
3
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
264,632
311,109
Population aged 65+
83,348
95,959
Population aged under 15
62,340
69,455
Median age of population
44.4 yrs
44.6 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
31.5%
30.8%
Crude rate of total population change
-1.3 /1k
-0.9 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
4.9 /1k
5.1 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.3 /1k
6.8 /1k
Crude death rate
13.6 /1k
12.8 /1k
Live births
3,010
3,258
Deaths
5,589
6,116
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.1%
53.2%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.37
1.28
Population density (persons per km²)
53 /km²
119 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
286,007
240,203
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.2%
27.5%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
76.4 yrs
76.3 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
11.9%
19.3%
Health
Hospital beds per 100k inhabitants ·N2
805 /100k
542 /100k
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,939 /100k
1,895 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
249 /100k
207 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.7 /100k
0.0 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
9.0 /100k
2.7 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
151 /100k
54.1 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
313 /100k
162 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
68 /M
76 /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)
192 m
262 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
19 days/yr
18 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
60 days/yr
84 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
4 days/yr
5 days/yr