Romania Population Density
Population density and distribution of cities. – With an average density of 61 residents per sq. km. Romania is far below the states of central and western Europe, but it is moreover above the average densities found in eastern Europe, with which it borders and of which it already shows some characteristics. The great extension of the mountains and that of the steppe plains are the two main causes that contribute to keeping the average density low.
According to 800zipcodes, the Wallachian plain, and especially eastern Muntenia (Bărăgan), was almost deserted in the first half of the century. XIX, and colonization has not yet raised the density to more than 25 residents per sq km. The same situation is found in a part of Bessarabia and Dobruja. The Banat plain and generally the entire western border area have a denser population (from 70 to 80 residents Per sq. Km.). The hills of Transylvania have average densities, which exceed 75 residents per sq. km. along the great valleys (mainly in Mureş).
Throughout the Romanian country, the oldest and densest populated areas are those in which the relief is quite rugged, without reaching altitudes above 600 or 800 m., For example the sub-Carpathian hills of Wallachia, especially in Muntenia, Moldavia. southern, most of Bucovina and central Bessarabia. The whole Siret valley is quite densely populated (from 80 to 100 residents per sq. Km.). In the Ploeşti region, even before the development of the oil industry, densities above 100 inhabited were reached. per sq. km., and it is remarkable that this population hearth radiates over the whole plain as far as the Danube, following the Dâmboviţa; in this region, more favored than the rest of the plain, the capital Bucharest was born.
It should be noted that the Carpazî, quite populated at modest heights, are completely uninhabited starting from 1000 or 1200 m. There is nothing that recalls the high villages of the Alps. Only the mining exploitation has provoked the establishment of some human nucleus in the coniferous forest area (Banato, Poiana Rusca). In the surroundings of Haţeg and Cluj a fairly recent movement of forest colonization has given rise to some farmhouses at 1000 m.; but they are exceptions. The Prahova Valley is one of the few highly populated Carpathian valleys above 800 m.; this is due to the traffic of the Predeal Pass, crossed by the railway.
The attached table shows the population of the administrative divisions (jude ţ e) divided by large historical provinces, the Old Kingdom, Transylvania (with Banat, Crisana and Maramureş), Bucovina and Bessarabia, according to the 1930 census. list of cities with more than 20,000 residents, which are about thirty. In fact, Romania is still far from being a nation of intense urban life.
The ancient urban centers arose in Wallachia and Moldavia in the vicinity of mountains and in the hilly area which for a long time remained the most populated. But now these are no longer the most important cities, with the exception of Ploeşti, which marks the outlet of the Trans-Carpathian roads, once passing through the Bran Pass, today, by rail, to Predeal and the Prahova Valley. Câmpulung has lost its ancient importance, as has Râmnicul-Vâlcea at the mouth of the Olt. The cities of the plain and the port-cities on the Danube are currently the most active: Craiova on the lower Jiu, Bucharest, the capital, on Dâmboviţa, Giurgiu, Silistra and above all the two ports of Galati and Brăila on the Danube.
The capital of the ancient Moldavian principality, once the most important city of Bucharest, a stop on the Baltic road and the Polish centers towards the Black Sea and the East, ancient Iaşi, decayed at the end of the century. XIX and the beginning of the XX, and begins to recover now, after the return of Bessarabia to Romania. The railway that passes through the Siret valley left it out of today’s communications: the proximity of Chişinău has changed things somewhat. Cernăuti is the only important city of Bucorina, better situated than Iasi in regards to the railway connections.
Transylvania has a fairly large number of small towns, three of which are particularly active centers. Braşov (formerly Brassó or Kronstadt) looks at the Carpazî passes from the north, like Ploeşti from the south. Sibiu (formerly Nagy Szeben or Hermannstadt) has a similar situation with respect to the squeeze of the Olt. Cluj (anticameute Kolozsvár or Klausenburg) owes all its importance to the favor of the prince, who made it an administrative capital on one of the branches of upper Someş.
The edge of the Hungarian plain is a region full of cities, three of which are particularly important: Oradea-Mare (formerly Nagy Várad), Arad, and Timişoara (formerly Temesvár).
