About Cluj

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inhabitants in the metropolitan area

major Romanian universities located in Cluj-Napoca

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IT companies active in the metropolitan area

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employees in the IT sector

CLUJ-NAPOCA: CITY OF HEART

Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg în German, Kolozsvár in Hungarian) is one of the largest cities in Romania. Located in the northwestern part of Transylvania, with an impressive history of over 2000 years, it has developed into a multi-cultural city with a metropolitan area that includes a population of over 500.000 inhabitants and an active business environment oriented towards innovation and development.

Education

The city is home to the largest university in Romania, the “Babeș – Bolyai” University, as well as other prestigious academic institutions:

  • The Technical University of Cluj, 
  • “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy,
  • The University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj,
  • The University of Art and Design Cluj,
  • “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy and several research institutes.

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Also known as The Capital of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca was the European Capital of Youth in 2015 and the European City of Sport in 2018.

The city hosts some of Romania’s most important music festivals (Untold Festival, Electric Castle), film festivals (Transylvania International Film Festival TIFF), sport events, as well as international conferences and gatherings covering a wide range of fields, from contemporary art to tech innovation or emerging industries.

BUSINESS

In just 10 years, the number of employees in the private sector grew four times larger in sub-sectors of services connected to the global externalization flux: ICT, business support, engineering and research/development, creative industries.

In this last decade, the Cluj Metropolitan Area also reached an average of 4.5k new firms. Approximately 77% of these firms were registered in Cluj-Napoca. In 2018, the city of Cluj-Napoca doubled its GDP, reaching approximately 7.3 billion €.

Cluj-Napoca also recorded the highest value of income from the private sector in Romania in 2018 (after the capital-city of Bucharest), approximately 12.5 billion €.

THE IT SECTOR

Cluj-Napoca has experienced a remarkable growth in the IT sector during the last decade and, as it continues to develop in this area, it is already ranked second after the capital city of Bucharest in the Romanian IT environment.

In the last 8 years, the Cluj Metropolitan Area reached an annual average of 129 new start-ups. One in ten start-up companies was active in the fields of IT or transportation. With important multinational companies establishing regional headquarters or offices here and a bustling business environment, the city is constantly expanding within the IT sector and, from this perspective, it comes as no surprise to find here one of the largest IT clusters in Romania: Cluj IT.

Consequently, some of the most important IT conferences and events in Romania (such as Cluj Innovation Days, for example) are also held here.

With over 1.200 IT companies that involve more than 20.000 employees and with the constant support coming from the local authorities and universities, Cluj-Napoca is on its way to becoming a major digital hub in Eastern Europe, as a city driven by innovation in which creativity, professionalism, resources and opportunities come together for the ultimate goal: shaping a better society.