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Changes in the Dynamics and Demographic Structure of the Romanian Rural Population: An Overview of the Post-communist Period
Abstract
Currently, Romania’s rural area is undergoing a restructuring process, acquiring new demographic dimensions and characteristics. Since the first decade of the XXI century, the general dynamics of rural population was negative, as a consequence of the severe ageing, decreasing birth-rates and the upsurge of external migration. After decades of rural exodus, the urban-rural flow has been increasing in the past few years. Despite this trend, it would be premature to speak of a transition to urban exodus, in fact the town is expanding over its rural neighbourhood, and in some cases, sustaining the development of residential ensembles and tourist sites. In this context, some of the rural LAUs near large cities evolved into residential areas, the investments therein contributing to their economic and social prosperity, which made them attractive, also improving people’s standard of living. At the other end of the spectrum are the villages located at great distances from the major cities, geographically isolated or devoid of modern infrastructure, where living conditions are quite precarious. The study aims to analyze population dynamics over 1992–2016 period, changes in territorial distribution of population and in demographic structures using different indicators (population structure by large age groups, Vitality Index, Demographic Dependency Index, Labour Renewal Index, General Activity Rate).
... The evolution of the inter-communal relations at the rural-rural, rural-urban/urbanrural levels, as well as the way of rural settlements set-up, made the demographic size vary greatly [95,96]. The 32 rural LAUs (local administrative units) /communes range from a minimum of 2674 inhabitants (inh.) in Dărăs , ti-Ilfov to a maximum of 18,477 inh. in Chiajna. ...
... An important phenomenon Romania's large cities are facing is the centre to the outskirts and blocks-of-flats to one-family dwellings or new residential districts migration [42,97]. Thus, changing the spatial distribution of population according to its socio-economic status (residential suburbanisation) is reversing the traditional social and spatial patterns of the communist city characterised by the declining of the socio-economic status of population with distance from the centre [12,42,96,98]. ...
Urban development and changing the patterns of industry and agriculture had caused the foremost spatial and functional transformations of the post-communist period in Romania. These changes have resulted in increased land consumption, often including the reuse of abandoned or non-residential built-up areas (e.g., industrial, agricultural). By integrating spatial and statistical data, the current analysis has revealed as key features: spatial shrinkage, fragmentation, functional diversification, tertiarization and change of patterns. Using a functional change matrix, five main (re)use types have been identified and quantified: maintenance, conversion, replacement, abandonment, and demolition. Overall, between 1990 and 2018, over 50% functional losses have been recorded.
... The evolution of demographic behavior in the Central and Eastern European area, which bears the imprint of the legacy of communist-type political systems, occupies a distinct place in the scientific literature that studies the phenomenon of depopulation and its consequences. Thus, Andrei and Branda (2015) analyze the consequences of pro-natalist policies in communist Romania on subsequent demographic evolution, and Mitrică et al. (2019) highlight the main changes in the dynamics and demographic structure of the rural population. A similar analysis is made by Nikitović (2022) regarding the regional particularities of depopulation in Serbia, while Nancu, Guran-Nica and Persu (2010), and Nancu, Persu and Damian (2011) focus their analysis on the evolution and territorial distribution of the Romanian rural population, respectively on the demographic aging affecting rural communities in contemporary Romania. ...
Depopulation is a characteristic phenomenon for the Central and Eastern European space that gained in amplitude especially after 1990 in the context of political-ideological changes that affected the states of this region and that also led to changes in demographic behavior. These consisted, on the one hand, in the abolition of pro-natalist policies from the communist period and, on the other hand, in the intensification of emigration flows in connection with the economic and social discrepancies and the free movement of persons. In this context, the paper analyzes the evolution of Romania’s population in a global and European context, the factors that determined its sharp population decline, as well as its economic and social consequences. Also, the demographic characteristics of Romania and future trends regarding the peculiarities and dynamics of the Romanian population are highlighted.
... 126). As expected by economic models, negative rural growth rates are associated with geographical isolation and industrial decline, which drive out-migration and decreased fertility rates [20]. Many rural locales have experienced population loss of 50% or more and in some counties, the number of disappeared village has continued to grow since 1992, particularly in the northeast (Botoşani) and Transylvania (Mures , , Alba, and Hunedoara) [21] (p. ...
In Romania, rural communities grapple with decades of depopulation and economic decline, endangering the natural and cultural richness of their landscapes. The implementation of Romania’s 2030 sustainable development plan presents an opportunity to reverse these trends by merging economic and community development with cultural preservation. This paper examines the potential for creating new livelihood opportunities through a program that integrates sustainable agrotourism with culturally appropriate vernacular architecture in Romania’s distinct rural regions. Focusing on two such regions characterized by significant rural population decline yet endowed with ecological services capable of supporting a diverse rural economy, we collaborated with an architect and landscape engineer to devise three specific and detailed agritourist housing scenarios. These scenarios draw upon local architectural forms harmonious with the vernacular landscape, providing accommodations for agrotourism guests and facilitating craft workshops for visitors interested in rural crafts and traditions. We evaluated the cultural appropriateness of the architectural designs through a social survey and assessed the broader social utility of the development plan via an expansive cost–benefit analysis, treating the project’s sustainability features as quasi-public goods. Such interdisciplinary endeavours are essential for effectively bridging conceptually driven social analysis with pragmatic design and planning strategies, essential for achieving sustainable futures for rural communities and landscapes, as exemplified by rural Romania.
... Subsequently, to identify the impact of natural increase over the population change and hints about its future trajectory, the Vitality Index was calculated as the ratio between live newborns and deaths. Following this model, values over 100% mean that the population tends to grow (if migration does not influence the process), while values below 100% indicate a sign of demographic decline in the medium and long term (Mitricȃ et al., 2019). ...
After the collapse of the communist regime (1989), Romanian small towns (under 20,000 inhabitants) followed divergent trajectories in the context of the wider political, economic, and social shift to democracy and free-market economy. These types of settlements are the basis of the urban network and are considered the most exposed to structural transformations and to the ongoing demographic changes. Among the major driving forces influencing the small town’s population-related metamorphosis we can list their historical communist background, economic restructuring process, emigration flows (intensified after Romania’s accession to the European Union), changes of demographic behaviour, etc. The study aims to analyse the demographic changes of small towns in Romania in the post-communism and their current characteristics and challenges through several tools: the first one being several indicators—population dynamics, vitality index, net migration rate, and old-age dependency ratio—and the last one is a composite index of demographic vulnerability (IDV), designed in an integrated perspective using five variables. The results reveal a general tendency of demographic decline and ageing, although there are also various demographic asymmetries where some small towns flourish while, at the other end of the spectrum, others experience severe population decline that is often related to a sharp deindustrialization process. Then, there are some small towns that were able to reverse their trajectories, from a downturn in the late 1990s or even later, to a prosperous perspective nowadays.
... The following category in terms of population dynamics is that of Bistrița-Năsăud, Constanța and Bucharest counties, which had a dynamic between -0.01 and 0.01% in the analysed interval, with Constanța and Bucharest having a more intense economic development. At the same time, Constanța County, which has a developed economy due to the port activity, is both the main economic centre of the South-East Development Region as well as home to a large percentage of the urban population 30,34 . ...
In Romania, the state of healthcare infrastructure and health state of the population are influenced by the evolution of the economy, which represents a key element in the development of the Romanian society, both from a social, as well as from an economic point of view. Although the health situation has improved over the years through the introduction of new technologies, the improvement of the medical system and access to information in the medical field, the emergence of private healthcare services, Romania is still lagging behind other countries, due to the fact that it inherited a system in which the health education process was not paid the necessary attention, and new risks arose during the transition to a market economy. The study relies on the Local Administrative Units (LAU) level database provided by the Population and Housing Census (2002 and 2011) and the TEMPO Online time series (year 2020) published by the National Institute of Statistics. The authors computed different indexes (e.g., Natality Rate, Fertility Rate, Natural balance, Life expectancy, Mortality Rate, Infant Mortality Rate) which outlined the changes in the demographic features. The indicators are used in order to characterize healthcare pertain to physicians and hospital infrastructure. Regarding demographic features dynamic during 2002 and 2020, the mix between the trends of decrease and/or decrease registered by natality, mortality, natural balance shows, in general, a decrease in the number of inhabitants in most of the country's counties. Regarding the healthcare system, there are differences in the two environments, urban and rural, both in terms of the number of physicians and in the number of medical units being found in large urban centres. These differences in the distribution of medical staff and hospitals lead to a reduced supply of medical services in rural areas or in cities with a small population. National priorities in the health sector include: improving the infrastructure of the healthcare system, developing the healthcare infrastructure at all levels so as to cut down on the inequalities in terms of access to healthcare, and improving maternal and newborn health.
... These facts decrease the efficiency and the purpose of the vaccination process as the main tool to fight the virus. A detailed study focusing on the territorial features of the vaccination process revealed that it is impacted by several dysfunctions, such as: (a) the concentration in urban settlements (83.2% of total of 357 vaccination centres functioning at the end of February 2021, which means that a large number of people living in large rural areas remain outside vaccination process); (b) the imbalance with the high share of elderly people, making up over 30% of the population (which are registered in the rural settlements from the southern half of Romania, as well as in the western parts, especially in the mountain areas (Gheţău et al., 2016;Mitrică et al., 2019;Mocanu et al., 2021)); (c) the access to the national and county road network. Given these issues, the importance of prevention is crucial and it starts with each individual. ...
The assessment and identification of risk/vulnerable groups and risk factors are vital elements that can help quantify the pandemic potential of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus in order to plan prevention and treatment measures. The aim of the study is to identify a methodological approach of population vulnerability to the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus infection. The study identifies reliable data sources and sets up a unitary database with statistical variables, quantitative and qualitative indicators with potential for being updated and improved. The analysis takes into account a number of variables/indicators (e.g., elderly persons, population without physician care, number of people suffering from cardiovascular diseases, number of people suffering from respiratory diseases, dwellings not connected to the public water supply network, no. of medical staff, number of COVID‐19 hospitals, PCR testing laboratories, number of vaccinated persons) grouped into the key vulnerability components: exposure, sensitivity, coping capacity and adaptive capacity. They allowed the computation of the final Index of Population Vulnerability to the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus infection and the mapping of different dimensions of vulnerability. The study was performed using the statistical data available at NUTS3/County level provided by different institutions (e.g., the Ministry of Health, the National Institute of Public Health, the Strategic Communication Group, and the National Institute of Statistics). The mapping of the different degrees of vulnerability could solve a problem of visibility for possible areas with vulnerable population, but also a problem of communication between different institutional health and administrative levels, as well as between all of them and the local communities and/or professionals.
... In this paper, the distribution of VC is territorially correlated with the distribution of the elderly, as one of the categories of populations targeted by the 2 nd stage of the VP and with the degree of accessibility by road. The elderly population registered high shares (over 30%) in the rural settlements located in the southern half of Romania, as well as in the western ones, especially within the mountain areas 24,23 . Taking into consideration these essential aspects, we issue the observation that the mentioned areas are particularly poorly covered by VCs, as shown in Fig. 2: the VCs are only in towns (e.g. ...
In the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic crisis, declared by the World Health Organization in March, 2020, a sustainable and permanent solution was the development of an efficacious and safe vaccine against the virus. This study aims to be a picture of the vaccination process (VP), performed at the end of February, 2021, on the subject of the "population at risk-e.g the elderly" (one category of persons targeted by the second stage of VP). The present paper aims to analyze several geographic features of the VP in Romania, such as: (i) the territorial distribution of vaccination centers (VCs); (ii) their capacity to cover the potential needs of the local population in terms of the anti-COVID-19 vaccination; (iii) the spatial itineraries induced to the elderly population by the overly-busy VCs; (iv) the effect of a VC on local economy, especially in rural settlements and small towns. The used research methods are of a qualitative and quantitative nature (e.g. official statistical public documents analyses, interviews) and the analysis is performed at the lowest territorial level at which statistical data are available, namely the Local Administrative Units (LAU). The main conclusion is that the topic of the VC's geographic position should be studied on a local scale, for that the VP to have a positive impact on population, wherever it may be.
... In the South Dobrogea Plateau and in several localities in the Banat Mountains, there is a better situation than the national average for the drinking water network indicator (due to the fact that this indicator is in relation to the total population number, which is low, so the final values are above the national average (Figure 4), but they have several demographic imbalances, reflected by a high population aging index ( Figure 5) and a low population density. The aging phenomenon, the most important change in age structure that Romania's population has faced over the past four to five decades [104], is observed in 429 LAUs from this class, representing 72.2% of the total LAUs. The population density is higher than the national average, 93.1 inh./km 2 [54] in the case of 217 LAUs, the highest ones being registered in populated, average-sized towns. ...
Sustainable tourism is gaining importance in national agendas to encourage economic growth, social inclusion, and the protection of cultural and natural assets. More than 13 million tourists (10.6 mil. Romanians and 2.6 mil. foreigners) visited Romania in 2019, the fifth consecutive year of growth for the tourism sector. The authors have selected 10 statistical indicators to highlight the main components for tourism sustainability by using the principal component analysis (PCA). The current patterns of sustainable development of tourism and the territorial inequalities at a micro-scale were assessed based on a sustainable tourism index (STI). In addition, to observe the way indicators interact and determine each other and to analyze the territorial disparities, the hierarchical ascending classification was used. The study was performed using the statistical data available at NUTS5/LAU level provided by the National Institute of Statistics. In addition, various data and information extracted from documents published by the UNWTO, National Institute for Research and Development in Tourism, the World Bank, EUROSTAT, etc., were also used. By applying an STI, the authors were able to assess the tourism development level at a national scale in Romania, delineating the most advantaged/disadvantaged areas. The analysis of sustainable tourism in Romania shows that tourism performance is more consolidated in the big cities, the Black Sea coast, the Danube Delta and the Carpathian Mountains. Studies such as the present one are meant to provide a methodological framework that will be useful to perform a quantitative assessment of the sustainable level of tourism development in terms of economic, social and environmental performance.
... In Romania, according to Law 351/2001(Romanian Parliament 2001b, an urban settlement has to have values below 25%, a threshold that is fulfilled by only 74% of small towns. The highest weights of over 50% employment in agriculture are only observed in 5% of small towns, which present The activity rate demonstrates the potential of the labour force (Mitrică et al. 2019), which is relevant for understanding town performance and its socio-economic profile (Servillo et al. 2014b;Hamdouch et al. 2017). The average value for small towns is 63.4%, which is lower than the national average (67.3%) and the urban average (67.9%). ...
Small towns have long been overshadowed, but in recent years, there is a growing recognition of their territorial role, both on the research agenda and on the European Union level, simultaneously with an increasing awareness of their heterogeneity. In spite of this, studies focused on small towns in Eastern Europe are few in relation to the large numbers in the area and the role of this paper is to contribute at filling in this gap. In Romania, there are 225 small towns (under 20,000 inhabitants), which constitute 70% of the entire urban system. In order to measure their urban characteristics, a multi-dimensional (composite) index was developed, called Index of Urban Strength. For the index, 22 relevant indicators were selected and grouped in three dimensions under the form of secondary indexes (demographic, socio-economic, infrastructure and land-use). Then, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) integrated with Geographic Information System (GIS) method was applied for each dimension, and the influential variables were identified. Finally, the index was computed allowing the assignment of different levels of urban strength (very low, low, medium and high) to Romanian small towns. The paper provides new insights related to the uneven development of small towns, allowing for comparative analyses and advocating the need to develop specific policies for each of the identified categories. The results indicate a spatial differentiation at the macro-region level, with the small towns with very low or low index of urban strength more prevalent in the East and South of the country than in the Centre and the West.
Bucharest’s residential space has experienced transformations determined primarily by its economic characteristics, and secondly by social and administrative aspects. During the last 30 years the transformations of the Municipality’ residential areas have been more significant. The aim of this study centres around understanding the changes within the dynamics of the capital city’s residential space. These changes and the challenges and inherent difficulties they bring to the population are caused today by a wide range of administrative and governmental approaches in terms of urban planning in general and residential planning in particular. The characteristics of the new residential areas represent an unfortunate consequence of an unprecedented high demand for housing in the context of the rapid development of Bucharest metropolitan area, while the legislation barely managed to keep up and to correct emerging shortcomings. The methodological resources used were direct field observations, as well as the case study method, supported by the survey method, and the structured interview used as a research instrument. The objectives of the study number: highlighting the residential dynamics’ typology within the sample areas, analysing the urban planning legislation, enumerating the leading dysfunctions that appeared in the new residential space, identifying the possible actors able to solve these issues. The findings observed an accelerated increase in the number and area of constructions, which expanded in the capital city’s peri-urban area. Unfortunately many times, it was revealed that a large part of them do not respect current residential legislative requirements. The difficulties that the local population faces nowadays stem from trying to deal with realities of the urban infrastructure such as less than optimal housing quality, heavy traffic, a sub-dimensioned public transport infrastructure, underdeveloped technical-urban facilities, urban waste infrastructure, and an overall imbalance between expectations and the reality of a new residential area.
Scientific collaboration between Polish and Romanian geographers is based on a very good and long tradition. It was long developed between human and physical geographers alike. The common bilateral projects had in view aspects related to the impact of natural and human process on the planning of mountain and hilly areas, the social-economic transformations in the Romanian and Polish suburban zones, the regional development in Central and Eastern Europe, the socio-economic development of rural areas in Poland and Romania. The last bilateral project on Internal peripheries in Polish and Romanian regions – role of endogenous and exogenous factors in their development processes, coordinated by Prof. Konrad Czapiewski from the Polish side, had as main research findings identifying common solutions serving the practical problems connected with the economic and social development of the internal peripheries in both countries.
Maintaining a rural-urban balance is absolutely necessary in the context of the challenges related to food security and environmental protection as well as the perspectives of urban agglomeration. This paper highlighted the impact of the main events from the last 30 years on the rural population. This study used the vector autoregressive model (VAR) to investigate the estimates and analyse the dynamic impact of innovations on the system of variables. Key issues that influenced certain periods in the analyzed interval were highlighted, which clearly show the impact on the analyzed variables using variance decomposition. The cost of living in rural areas is increasing, so more and more inhabitants give up growing certain crops or raising certain animals, thus having to search for food to survive, leading to additional wage income to cover these costs.
Delta regions are compound socio-ecological systems increasingly exposed to various multi-hazards (e.g., drought, flooding). The Danube Delta, one of the most complex wetland areas in Europe, and one of the most vulnerable regions when it comes to drought, defined by its key vulnerable categories: women, children, the elderly population, the unemployed etc. In addition to the demographic aspects, there is also the infrastructure that puts a damper on the development of certain sectors of the economy, be they technical (water, gas, electricity), or social (schools, medicine, medical facilities). The current paper aims to apply a multi-criteria regional-level aridity and drought vulnerability assessment relying on both quantitative and qualitative methods in attaining a two-fold objective: (1) developing a comprehensive socio-economic aridity and drought vulnerability index in order to (2) identifying aridity and drought-vulnerable areas based on the finest indicators available for quantifying socio-economic vulnerability. The main research findings point to a general high and very high socio-economic vulnerability in the central and northern parts of the Danube Delta (36.3% of the total population) because of the high values of the elderly population, of households not connected to the water supply and sewage network, of the economic dependency rate, the high distance from the polarizing centres and the small numbers of emergency situation units. The low and very low vulnerability is registered in the West and in Sulina town (19.4% of the total population) where the accessibility to infrastructure and services makes up for the overall high drought exposure (dry/arid and semiarid climate). The research findings will improve the general understanding of drought vulnerability in a deltaic area, thus providing valuable information to be used by policymakers for drought management.
Consumer attitude and perception on food quality in general have caused and continue to cause a great deal of controversy, sparking the interest of food researchers and not only in studying the impact of food quality and safety on consumer behaviour. Assessing the level of knowledge on quality nutrition among consumers is of great importance on the metabolic benefits with a primary impact in ensuring and improving health and quality of life. According to EU Green Deal objectives, especially those highlighted in the Farm to Fork action, food quality is a key driver for enhancing organic farming as an important long term goal of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Taking into consideration those realities our paper aims to assess the impact of food quality and safety on consumers' choices in Romania, while underlying progress on the main food-related indicators in Romania. The research methodology is based on a quantitative analysis using the questionnaires on quality of life as a whole for achieving relevant answers for the aspects regarding the perception on food quality in stages. Our main conclusion is showing that in Romania the whole system of achieving food security and safety of food consumption with a certain level of quality must start with food production and distribution system. Thus, it is necessary that this system responds to all the specific demands of food security without omitting the current impact of climate change on agriculture and the adaptation of agriculture to procedures meant to reduce the future impact on the environment. Also the indicators related to food quality in Romania are showing that the higher share of employed population in agriculture per total employed workforce in the context of small farms and subsistence agriculture, means that the goods produced are being largely designed for the self-consumption household, hence EU food quality standards are not always applicable to such products.
Infrastructure, particularly technical one, is basis of economic activities both in urban and rural areas. The Romanian sector of the Danube Valley covers a large area, in which the life of resident communities is shaped by the River (1,075 km long). At present, 266 local administrative units (LAU2) in the Romanian Danube Valley number 238 communes, 28 municipia and towns and a population of 1.7 million inhabitants. The study relies on the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, the results of the Population and Housing Census (2011) and TEMPO Online Database (Internet 1). Hierarchizing LAU2 in terms of the technical-urbanistic infrastructure was made by the Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC). The aim was to group together territorial-administrative units by their parametric variables. There are many Danube Valley communities still unconnected to local drinking-water and sewerage systems, a restrictive factor in drawing potential investments into local economies. The study points out that the large Danubian port-cities also have the longest water and natural gas supply networks, as well as the greatest proportion of dwelling-houses connected to these systems. A fairly good situation have also some rural settlements lying close to big municipia or to tourist towns (in Danube Gorge and Danube Delta).
de urbanizare. Perioada comunistă versus perioada postcomunistă Până la mijlocul secolului al XX-lea, cu tot progresul industriei, România a rămas o ţară cu o structură preponderent rurală, cu un nivel de urbanizare scăzut (23,4% în 1948), iar particularităţile geografice ale teritoriului său, cât şi istoria frământată a acestei părţi a continentului european au făcut ca societatea românească să-şi menţină trăsăturile predominant rurale. Odată cu procesul de industrializare treptată a României din perioada interbelică, după cum era şi firesc, s-a accentuat şi dezvoltarea urbană, manifestată, în primul rând, prin creşterea numărului de oraşe, de la 119 în anul 1912 la 142 în 1930 şi 152 în anul 1948. Aceasta a dus, între 1912 şi 1948, la creşterea populaţiei oraşelor de 1,8 ori, cu un spor mediu anual de 45 000 persoane. Dacă în 1912 Bucureştiul era singurul oraş mare al României, cu peste 341 000 locuitori, până în 1948 acestuia i s-au mai adăugat oraşele Cluj-Napoca, Iaşi, Galaţi şi Timişoara, cu peste 100 000 fiecare, capitala însăşi depăşind 1 mil. de locuitori. Populaţia urbană a crescut de la 16% în 1912 la 23,4% în 1948, reprezentând, pentru jumătatea secolului XX, totuşi, un nivel redus de urbanizare. Erau judeţe în care proporţia populaţiei orăşeneşti se situa sub 10% (Gorj, Sălaj, Bistriţa-Năsăud), iar cele mai urbanizate judeţe (Brăila, Constanţa, Cluj, Braşov, Galaţi, Sibiu) aveau între 28 şi 35% populaţie urbană (Trebici şi colab., 1986). În a doua jumătate a secolului al XX-lea au loc modificări radicale în procesul de dezvoltare economică şi socială a României, în mare parte fiind o consecinţă a politicilor ce au fost urmate în acest domeniu. Aceste modificări s-au produs cu intensitate maximă atât în perioada 1950–1960/1962, care a marcat trecerea de la economia capitalistă la cea socialistă, puternic centralizată şi planificată cât şi în cea începută după 1989, de trecere de la economia socialistă la economia de piaţă. Între 1950–1989, modelul dezvoltării României, ca şi în cazul celorlalte ţări comuniste central-europene, s-a bazat pe industrializarea extensivă, secondată de procesul de urbanizare explozivă şi de sistematizare a întregului teritoriu naţional. Sistemul urban s-a consolidat în deceniile 7, 8 şi 9 ale secolului trecut, prin crearea unei structuri echilibrate la nivel judeţean. Industrializarea a avut, în etapa respectivă, un rol decisiv în dezvoltarea urbană a ţării, iar oraşul industrial a constituit tipul reprezentativ de aşezare urbană, cu o evoluţie ascendentă. Ca urmare, în 1986 peste jumătate din populaţia ţării locuia deja în oraşe.
Infrastructure, particularly technical one, is basis of economic activities both in urban and rural areas. The Romanian sector of the Danube Valley covers a large area, in which the life of resident communities is shaped by the River (1,075 km long). At present, 266 local administrative units (LAU2) in the Ro-manian Danube Valley number 238 communes, 28 municipia and towns and a population of 1.7 million inhabitants. The study relies on the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, the results of the Population and Housing Census (2011) and TEMPO Online Database (Internet 1). Hierarchizing LAU2 in terms of the technical-urbanistic infrastructure was made by the Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC). The aim was to group together territorial-administrative units by their parametric variables. There are many Danube Valley communities still unconnected to local drinking-water and sewerage systems, a restrictive factor in drawing potential investments into local economies. The study points out that the large Danubian port-cities also have the longest water and natural gas supply networks, as well as the greatest proportion of dwelling-houses connected to these systems. A fairly good situation have also some rural settlements lying close to big municipia or to tourist towns (in Danube Gorge and Danube Delta).
The aim of this paper is to analyze the demographic evolution of Romanian population in the last two decades, based on census data and to define main challenges on labour market potential and professional profile. We are referring to aspects of the general demographic characteristics, ethnic composition and age dependency ratios of Romanian resident population. The empirical research was completed by data visualization of demographic data, using R software.
Based on this analysis, we are advancing some signals on the effects produced by the demographic structure dynamics in the last decades on specific groups of population, like school population and working-age population.
In Romania nearly 7,500,000 (34%) inhabitants are living in metropolitan areas. The socio-economic and political changes brought about by the post-communist period have reshaped the metropolitan landscape together with its functional and socio-spatial pattern triggering a wide range of transformations mainly related to urban sprawl process (suburbanization). As one of its major consequences, residential development had caused the deconcentration and the spatial redistribution of the population within metropolitan areas. The paper attempts to analyse the main suburbanization-related residential patterns in connection with their key driving forces (socio-political, demographic, economic, housing) and the associated environmental consequences in the Romanian metropolitan areas in terms of: urban (residential) sprawl, real-estate market dynamics, changes in spatial pattern of population, living floor dynamics etc., with a special focus on the most significant metropolitan systems: Bucharest, Oradea, Iaşi and Constanţa. The present study will combine GIS computer mapping techniques with housing and demographic data and field surveys to identify the main urban-sprawl-related current residential patterns in the Romanian metropolitan areas and understand causes of change in order to predict how alternative policies will influence future spatial development.
Europe has faced for several decades and is still facing an ageing process of its population. Within it, Romania, a country, striving to successfully integrate into the European Union, is also experiencing the same process. The ageing process of the Romanian population started at the beginning of the 20th century and evolved progressively, ever since, with significant visible rates in the rural areas. Romania's population age structure, at the beginning of the Third Millennium, was, according to international experts, not significantly aged compared to populations of the economically advanced countries of Europe. Due to falling birth-rates and the labor emigration rush, the ageing process of the Romanian population has become increasingly serious, argued by a rate of 19.4% over 60-year-old population, of which 24.5% (2008) belongs to the rural area. The main responsible reason for this demographic and social situation is the replacement of the traditional reproduction pattern, mainly characterized by high birth and death rates, with a modern one, characterized by very low rates of the same kind. Low values in natality were, on one hand, the result of a steady regression of fertility, and on the other of, a drop in general mortality, hence the lengthening of the average life-span. To be able to cope with a relatively new phenomenon such as ageing of population, Romania needs to seriously consider adequate measures and steps towards achieving balance. Visionary strategy and plans require, well-grounded medium-and-long-term development programmes especially for the Romanian rural area.
Inter-Communal Cooperation and Regional Development: The Case of Romania
Romania's local administrative-territorial organisation shows a high degree of fragmentation. The situation tends to worsen as some villages break away from the parent communes and form new administrative-territorial structures. Since their area is fairly small and adequate financial resources to sustain some coherent, long-term development programmes are missing, a solution would be for them to associate freely into inter-communal cooperation structures, which is a basic prerequisite for attracting European structural funds. Such a type of cooperation practice was experienced in this country at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, inter-communal cooperation could be achieved in two ways: by an association of local communities patterned on historical ‘lands’ (after the French model) and by the establishment of a town, of the metropolitan type, to polarise cooperation structures.
European countries are experiencing population decline and the tacit assumption in most analyses is that the decline may have detrimental welfare effects. In this paper we use a survey among the population in the Netherlands to discover whether population decline is always met with fear. A number of results stand out: population size preferences differ by geographic proximity: at a global level the majority of respondents favors a (global) population decline, but closer to home one supports a stationary population. Population decline is clearly not always met with fear: 31 percent would like the population to decline at the national level and they generally perceive decline to be accompanied by immaterial welfare gains (improvement environment) as well as material welfare losses (tax increases, economic stagnation). In addition to these driving forces it appears that the attitude towards immigrants is a very strong determinant at all geographical levels: immigrants seem to be a stronger fear factor than population decline.
In this chapter, we review the development of suburbanization in Prague and Brno metropolitan areas in the Czech Republic
with particular attention paid to specific features of suburbanization in post-communist cities. Residential deconcentration
brought about the spatial redistribution of the population within metropolitan areas while the overall population stagnated.
The suburbanization of non-residential functions in the form of out-of-town greenfield developments has been more dynamic,
influenced by the massive inflow of foreign investments expanding on new markets. Employment in core cities is shrinking while
it is expanding in suburban areas, particularly in retail, warehousing, and — in Brno— also in the industrial sectors.
Romania is one of the eastern European countries to face a tumultuous history during the second half of the last century.
The results of this experience are expressed in the current transformation processes at the macro and micro levels of the
economic space. By 1989 with the change in regime, the new political and economic transformation of the country changed the
direction and the intensity of the internal migration flows. This chapter presents the rates of the internal migration flows
in Romania during the last two decades, concentrating on the counter-urbanisation process and its impact, particularly on
the rural-urban fringe. The transition from dependence on farming to a more diversified economic base has transformed this
belt into a space of mixed production and consumption. At present, the urban-rural flow of people from the inner parts of
the metropolitan area is a dominant flow, where the upper and middle classes of urban dwellers are in search of new life idylls
and enhanced amenities available at the fringe. Also, there is an increasing heterogeneity within the rural-urban fringe in
economic and social terms. The different social structure is translated into modified residential land-use and its related
demand for goods and services that induce the development of new functions.
The report analyses population migration and change in Romania over the period 1984-1994. The analysis of population change is conducted for 2948 communes and towns, the finest administrative division for which population data are available. The lack of migration data on the level of communes and towns makes in-depth analysis of the migration for small spatial units impossible. For that reason analysis of the patterns of migration is conducted for 40 Judete (also referred to as counties or regions) and the capital city of Bucharest, i.e. 41 units altogether.
Council of Europe Publishing,
F-67075 Strasbourg - Cedex,
France.
Land development in the United States is following two routes: expansion of urban areas and large-lot development (greater than 1 acre per house) in rural areas. Urban expansion claimed more than 1 million acres per year between 1960 and 1990, yet is not seen as a threat to most farming, although it may reduce production of some high-value or specialty crops. The consequences of continued large–lot development may be less sanguine, since it consumes much more land per unit of housing than the typical suburb. Controlling growth and planning for it are the domains of State and local governments. The Federal Government may be able to help them in such areas as building capacity to plan and control growth, providing financial incentives for channeling growth in desirable directions, or coordinating local, regional, and State efforts.
The paper analyzes social resilience at county level in Romania, in the context of the recent global financial and economic crisis. Generally, social resilience is seen as the ability of communities to cope with external stress such as changes in the economic environment. This study emphasizes the vulnerabilities of economies where communities live in, namely the particularities of economic environment where human communities evolve and co-evolve by resilience emergence. Thus, the link between the social and the economic component requires a special attention, initially external shock being experienced by the economic structure, which, to respond to sudden changes, dissipates shock to the other components of the social-economic system, namely the social component. The close relationship between the economic and the social components causes economies deepening into crisis by triggering a circular causality process. The population’s decision to change residence interrupts this process, leading to social resilience. © 2015, Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti. All rights reserved.
If the twentieth century was marked by vast improvements in public health, then the twenty-first century is likely to be defined by steep declines in fertility rates. Populations in many countries will shrink and age, posing additional challenges for governments. Relatively high fertility rates and immigration levels in the United States, however, may mean that it will emerge with a stronger hand.
The aim of this paper is to contribute towards emergent debates on the ‘quality’ of multifunctional trajectories in rural development. The focus will be placed on the local rural community level, as it is at this level that multifunctionality is most often implemented. There has been an identified need for a new concept of multifunctionality that is conceptually and theoretically better anchored in current debates on agricultural/rural change, and for a globally applicable model that draws on existing holistic debates. The paper will suggest a conceptual framework for understanding rural community trajectories based on economic, social and environmental resilience and vulnerability of rural areas. The notion of multifunctional quality will emerge not only as a conceptual model for understanding rural pathways of change, but also as an explanatory tool and as a normative ideal for rural development. The paper builds on debates on multifunctionality extensively shaped by human geographers with the aim to extend the conceptual boundaries of the notion of multifunctionality, to further refine existing understandings of multifunctional transitions in rural communities, and to critically interrogate the components for strong multifunctionality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the complex policy implications associated with a transition from weak to strong multifunctionality.
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