Area Handbook for Romania Part 5

In the 1918 settlement after World War I about 38,500 square miles were ceded to Romania from the dismantled Austro-Hungarian Empire. In addition to historic Transylvania, with its area of about 21,300 square miles, a strip along its western side, with a substantially Magyar population, and Bukovina, part of which is now the most north-central section of the country, were included. Also in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian revolution, Romania acquired Bessarabia from the new Bolshevik regime and enlarged its holdings in Dobruja at Bulgaria's expense.

During the brief period of accord between the Soviet Union and n.a.z.i Germany immediately before World War II, portions of Romania were sliced away and divided among Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. The post-World War II settlement, arrived at in 1947, again transferred Transylvania from Hungary to Romania, and Dobruja--with a somewhat modified southern border--was transferred from Bulgaria. The Soviet Union retained all of Bessarabia and the northern portion of Bukovina.

In 1971 none of Romania's borders were disputed, and all of them were satisfactorily demarcated.

The total circ.u.mference of the country is about 1,975 miles. The northern and eastern border with the Soviet Union extends for about 830 miles; the southern border with Bulgaria, for 375 miles; the southwestern border with Yugoslavia, for 345 miles; and the northwestern border with Hungary, for 275 miles. The Black Sea coast is about 150 miles long. The eastern boundary generally follows the Prut River, and most of the southern boundary is formed by the Danube; in the west and north the border follows no distinctive terrain features, often having been drawn according to ethnic, rather than geographic, considerations.

Political Subdivisions

Until 1968 the communist regime had divided the country into seventeen regions--including one consisting of the Bucharest metropolitan area only--and 152 districts. In an extensive reorganization of local governments at that time, the regions were done away with and replaced by the prewar system of counties (_judete_). In 1971 there were thirty-nine counties, plus Bucharest and its suburban areas, which were still administered separately. Bucharest was one of forty-six munic.i.p.alities, but it was the only one not subordinate to the district in which it was located. Each county is named for the town that is its administrative center. The newer organization has served to increase public partic.i.p.ation in local government but has also increased the authority of the central government.

Bucharest, with a population of nearly 1.5 million in 1969, was about six times larger than Brasov, the next largest city. The Bucharest district was smallest in area and greatest in population. Other districts had roughly similar areas and populations. They averaged about 2,350 square miles in area and, although their populations varied between fewer than 200,000 and about 750,000, two-thirds of them had between 350,000 and 650,000 persons.

The 1968 reorganization also made extensive changes in the lower portion of the local administrative structure, reducing the number of communes by about 40 percent and villages by nearly 15 percent. Typical counties had about fifty communes of about 4,000 to 5,000 persons each. The smaller local units were created, dissolved, or combined as population and local requirements changed but, as of January 1970, there were 236 towns, 2,706 communes, and 13,149 villages. Of the towns, the forty-seven most important were cla.s.sified as munic.i.p.alities, and the communes included 145 that were suburban areas of the larger towns (see ch. 8).

POPULATION

The area approximating that defined by the 1971 boundaries of the country had a population estimated at about 8.2 million in 1860. Thirty years later it had increased to about 10 million. Growth began to accelerate slightly after 1890, with periods of greatest increases between 1930 and 1941 and between 1948 and 1956, until it reached an estimated 20.6 million in 1971.

The 1971 estimate was derived from the 1966 census and projected from vital statistics compiled locally through 1970. On this basis the estimated annual rate of growth was 1.3 percent, exceeded in Europe only by that of Albania. Density of the population was 224 persons per square mile. Projected at the 1971 growth rate, the population in 1985 would be 23.3 million, and it would take fifty-four years for the population of the country to double.

The 1971 growth rate, however, may not be maintained. Legislation enacted in 1966 stringently restricted abortions and discouraged birth control practices, resulting in an increased birth rate for the next few years, but by 1971 there were indications that the rate was again declining. Unofficially, it is expected that the population will reach only 25.75 million by the year 2000, or about 27 percent more than in 1970. The projection is based on a growth rate of less than that of the 1970-71 period. It is expected to average about 1.1 percent for the 1971-75 five-year period and to decrease thereafter, resulting in an average of between 0.7 and 0.8 percent over the entire period. Moreover, the increase is expected to be far greater in the over-sixty age group and to provide only about 14 percent more workers in the productive age brackets between fifteen and fifty-nine.

In 1970 the birth rate, at 23.3 births per 1,000 of the population, was also exceeded only by Albania's in all of Europe. The rate of infant mortality, at 54.9 deaths during the first year of life for each 1,000 live births, was slightly lower than those of Yugoslavia and Portugal and was exceeded significantly only by that of Albania. The death rate, at 10.1 per 1,000 was very close to the overall European rate of ten per 1,000.

According to the 1971 official estimate there were 10.1 million males and 10.4 million females, or 102.8 females for every 100 males in the population. Males outnumber females slightly in the childhood years and are the majority s.e.x in each five-year segment of the population to about the age of thirty. Females outnumber males in the thirty to thirty-four age group, after which there is near numerical equality between ages thirty-five and forty-four. Females attain a clear majority beyond age forty-five. Female life expectancy, at 70.5 years, is approximately four years greater than that of males.

The population group with ages from fifty to fifty-four had both a low overall figure and an abnormally low percentage of males (see table 1).

The low total reflected a low birth rate during World War I years; the abnormal s.e.x distribution reflected World War II combat losses. The low total in the twenty-five to twenty-nine group resulted from the low birth rate during World War II, and the low figure for the five-to-nine age group reflected the fewer number of parents in the group twenty years its senior and their disinclination to have children because of low incomes and inadequate housing.

The size of the five-to-nine age group was of concern to the country's economists because it will provide a smaller than desirable augmentation to the labor force at the end of the 1970 decade and for the early 1980s. The seemingly much larger group that was under five years of age in 1971, on the other hand, would appear on the surface to more than compensate for the smaller one preceding it. The country's economists, however, did not believe that an alleviation of the chronic shortage of people in the most productive working ages would occur during the twentieth century.

Aside from natural growth and additions and subtractions of territories and their occupants, the country's population has been comparatively stable. It has been affected to a lesser degree than others in eastern Europe by migrations during and after World War II, probably losing between 300,000 and 400,000 persons in various resettlement and population exchange movements. The largest emigration involved Jews to Israel. Israeli data show an average of about 30,000 immigrants from Romania during the three immediate postwar years, and Jewish people accounted for a major share of all emigration between then and the late 1960s.

_Table 1. Romania, Population Structure, by Age and s.e.x, 1971 Estimate_ (in thousands)

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of Percentage Females Age Group Total of Total Male Female for Each Population 100 Males -------------------------------------------------------------------- Under 5 2,255 11.0 1,149 1,106 96.4 5-9 1,392 6.7 713 679 95.3 10-14 1,743 8.5 892 851 95.3 15-19 1,787 8.7 911 876 95.6 20-24 1,588 7.7 806 782 97.2 25-29 1,316 6.5 666 650 97.6 30-34 1,533 7.4 757 776 102.4 35-39 1,542 7.5 773 769 99.2 40-44 1,502 7.3 752 750 99.6 45-49 1,303 6.3 623 680 109.2 50-54 806 3.9 363 443 121.7 55-59 1,020 5.0 468 552 117.8 60-64 950 4.6 452 498 110.0 65-69 737 3.6 351 386 109.6 70-74 540 2.6 235 305 129.8 75 and over 551 2.7 227 324 142.1 ----- ---- ---- ---- ----- Total population 20,565 100.0 10,138 10,427 102.8 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Source: Adapted from G.o.dfrey Baldwin (ed.), _International Population Reports_ (U.S. Department of Commerce, Series P-91, No. 18), Washington, 1969, pp. 32-33.

Within the country the greatest shift of people has been from rural to urban areas. The rural population grew by about 0.5 million, from 11.9 million to 12.4 million, between 1945 and 1971. During the same period urban population increased by about 3.5 million, from 4.7 million to about 8.24 million, and has become about 40 percent of the total.

Officials antic.i.p.ate that the rural population will stabilize and that most future increases will be to the towns and cities.

Of the 60 percent of the people who still live in small villages and settlements, most depend upon agriculture for their livelihood. Isolated farms and dwellings prevail in the more remote hills and mountains, and life in those areas has been little affected by industrialization of the country or by the collectivization of agricultural land, which has been accomplished in most of the better farming areas.

Older villages most typically have individual family houses, with farm buildings adjacent and with considerable separation between houses. In areas that have been collectivized there has been some effort to remove buildings from productive land and to nucleate the villages.

Population is most dense in the central portion of Walachia, centering on, and west of, Bucharest and Ploiesti and along the Siretul River in Moldavia. Southwestern Walachia and central and northwestern Transylvania are also more densely settled than the average for the country. The area around Dobruja, lands of high elevation, and marshlands along the lower Danube River are the most spa.r.s.ely settled areas.

LIVING CONDITIONS

According to semiofficial Romanian sources, the national income increased by six times during the twenty-year period between 1950 and 1970, and real wages, by 2.7 times. Between 1966 and 1970 improved economic conditions and a broader based industry had created about 800,000 new jobs, most of them in the industrial sector.

Increases in national income have been accompanied by increased outlays for social and cultural programs. The 1970 allocations for such programs were ten times greater than in 1950 and amounted to 27.5 percent of the total national budget.

Housing, production of consumer items, and changes in food consumption had also improved. Between 1966 and 1970 about 345,000 state-funded apartments and about 315,000 privately built dwellings became available.

New facilities for production of automobiles, furniture, wearing apparel, television sets, and other domestic electrical appliances increased output in these areas by about seven times that of 1950. Foods with high nutritive value were consumed in larger quant.i.ties.

Consumption of milk, garden vegetables, fruit, eggs, and fish nearly doubled between 1966 and 1970. More meat and cheese were also eaten, but the increase in their consumption was less spectacular.

Efforts on behalf of public health were reflected in increasing the life expectancy from forty-two years in 1932 to a figure that was more than 60 percent greater in 1970. Additional and better equipped hospitals and other medical facilities contributed to this, as did more emphasis on public sanitation and increased numbers of doctors and medical a.s.sistants. In 1970 there was a ratio of one physician for every 700 inhabitants, which was near the overall European average.

Despite an impressive record of achievements in the production of industrial goods, the standard of living--with the exception of Albania's and Portugal's--was probably the lowest in Europe in 1971.

During the preceding twenty years production of consumer goods was held down, while heavy capital investment was encouraged. This was deliberate economic practice calculated to be of maximum benefit to the country in time but not intended to produce the greatest immediate results.

The rent for an ordinary three-room apartment in 1971 was about one-third of the average worker's monthly wages; the cost of a new automobile was about forty times his monthly income. Housing area was small, the countrywide average being about eighty-two square feet of living s.p.a.ce per person. Although about 140,000 urban apartment units became available in 1969 and similar numbers were programmed for succeeding years, the housing situation was worse in cities than in small towns and rural areas.

Commentary on the lot of the consumer varies widely, frequently to the point of direct contradiction. Visitors that have had a less than totally favorable impression of the country report that food items--even the common staples, such as eggs, cheese, and sausage--are not always available and that, when they are, purchasers wait in long lines.

Because food items are often available only in small shops individually specializing in milk, cheese and sausage, or vegetables and eggs, for example, the mere task of buying food is a time-consuming undertaking.

Persons disenchanted with the situation also complain that, although poor harvests in 1968 and 1969 and floods in 1970 contributed further to food shortages, much was still exported during those years. In 1971 the government reiterated its plans to devote primary attention to the development of its heavy industrial base. Plans at that time, they alleged, would discourage increased production of consumer goods through 1975 at the least.

TRANSPORTATION

Railroads

Romania's early rail lines were developed largely in relation to external points rather than to serve local needs. Until World War I the one major trunk line ran south and east of the Carpathians from western Walachia to northern Moldavia. Feeder lines and branches connected to it, but there was little early construction in the marshy areas near the Danube River, and only one bridge, at Cernavoda, crossed it.

Transylvania, not yet part of the country, was linked to the old provinces by only one line across the Carpathians. Total route mileage was about 2,200 miles.

Hungary had developed lines connecting Budapest with Transylvania and branch lines within that province. When the area was annexed in 1918, Romania inherited the existing railroads and set about linking them more advantageously with the rest of the country. Most of the modern system was completed by 1938, but route mileage was increased by about another 10 percent after World War II. Late construction included another bridge over the Danube River, this time at Giurgiu, south of Bucharest (see fig. 4).

The system probably attained its maximum mileage in 1967, when it totaled almost 6,900 route-miles, all but about 400 of them standard gauge. About ten miles of line were retired during 1968 and 1969, and other little-used feeder lines will probably be abandoned as it becomes more practical to carry small loads over short distances by truck.

Railroads transported nearly ten times as much freight in 1969, measured in ton-miles, as did the highways. Their average load was carried a greater distance, however, and motor transport actually handled a larger volume of cargo (see table 2). During 1969 the railroads also carried over 300 million pa.s.sengers, for an average trip distance of thirty-two miles.

The Romanian State Railroads, directed by the Ministry of Transportation, operates all but a few minor lines and, in 1969, had about 147,000 employees. As steam locomotives are retired, they are being replaced by diesels. Only a little more than 100 route-miles have been electrified. Officials expect that roads and motor vehicles will take increasing percentages of short-haul cargo and short-trip pa.s.senger traffic. Airlines may cut somewhat into the long-distance pa.s.senger traffic, but the railroads are expected to remain important for both their freight and pa.s.senger services.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Figure 4. Romanian Transportation System._]

_Table 2. Use of Transportation Facilities in Romania, 1950, 1960, and 1969_

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Freight Ton-Miles (in million tons) (in millions) Cargo Traffic ------------------------------------------------- 1950 1960 1969 1950 1960 1969 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Railroads 35.1 77.5 155.4 4,740 12,380 27,500 Motor transport 1.0 56.7 215.6 26 583 2,830 Inland waterways 1.1 1.9 3.1 418 540 728 Sea 0.2 0.2 5.0 382 663 24,400 Air 0.003 0.003 0.02 1 1 21 Pipeline 1.0 5.6 9.2 118 637 790 -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Pa.s.sengers Pa.s.senger-Miles (in millions) (in millions)

Pa.s.senger Traffic -------------------------------------------------- 1950 1960 1969 1950 1960 1969 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Railroads 116.6 214.8 305.9 5,080 6,710 10,450 Motor transport 11.3 71.8 306.9 242 887 4,220 Inland waterways 0.6 1.2 1.4 10 25 43 Sea 0.05 0.08 0.02 59 17 14 Air 0.04 0.2 0.8 9 54 550 --------------------------------------------------------------------

Roads

Of the 47,800 miles of road, in 1969 about 6,000 miles--or 14 percent--were considered modernized. A little more than one-third had gravel or crushed stone to harden them, and almost exactly one-half had unimproved dirt surfaces.