Administrative divisions of Romania

Romania's way of organizing its land and people is quite simple compared to some other countries. This makes it easier for the government to take care of everyone. According to the Constitution of Romania, the country is divided into smaller parts to help with this.

There are 41 counties in Romania, and one special city, Bucharest, which is the capital. These counties and Bucharest help manage big areas. Inside these bigger areas, there are towns, cities, and communes. There are 103 municipalities, 217 other cities, and 2,861 communes. Municipalities are usually bigger towns, but they don’t have extra powers.

Below towns and communes, there are no more official parts, except for villages. Communes are made up of villages, and there are 12,957 of them in Romania. These villages don’t have their own governments. The only place that’s different is Bucharest, which is split into six sectors, each with its own local government.

Historic

Main article: Historical administrative divisions of Romania

Romania's way of organizing its land into areas has a long history. The earliest ways of doing this date back to the early 1400s. Back then, areas were ruled by leaders called jude or pârcălab, who had important jobs in managing and making decisions.

When modern Romania was created in 1859 and grew bigger in 1918, it changed how it organized its areas, taking ideas from France. Since 1864, each area has had a prefect, who represents the government and leads local administration.

During World War II, Romania's borders changed a lot. Some lands were taken by the Soviet Union, and later, Romania briefly controlled other areas.

After the war, the Communist Party changed how the country was run. In 1968, it went back to the current system, though the areas were different from before. The borders we have today were mostly set in 1968, with small changes later on.

Current status

In 1998, Romania created eight regional divisions to help with development as the country joined the European Union. These regions group several counties together but do not have their own government or laws.

As of 2009, Romania is divided into 41 counties and one special city, Bucharest, which are part of a system used by the European Union. Right now, Romania does not use the smallest level of this system. The leaders in each county focus on carrying out decisions, while courts follow county borders. Each county also elects a group of leaders called a County Council during local elections. The way the leader of this group is chosen changed in 2016. There are ideas to give counties more power in the future.

Future developments

Since 2010, there have been ideas to change how Romania is organized. These ideas suggest bringing back the old way of organizing the counties from before 1950. The counties might be grouped into regions, with about 9 to 15 regions based on shared history and economy (NUTS II level). These regions could then be grouped into bigger areas, called macroregions, with 4 to 6 of them (NUTS I level). There might also be a new smaller level called plasă or canton to fit rules from the EU.

Another idea, suggested by the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, would create 15 special areas, including one for areas with many Hungarian people, using parts of Mureș, Harghita, and Covasna counties. These areas would then be grouped into 5 bigger statistical areas (NUTS I).

Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS)

Main article: NUTS statistical regions of Romania

For statistical and development reasons, Romania is divided into different levels in the NUTS scheme. At the NUTS I level, there are 4 macroregions used for European development funds. At the NUTS II level, there are 8 development regions, each with about 2.8 million people, used for statistics and development. At the NUTS III level, there are 41 counties and one municipality, Bucharest, the national capital.

The Municipality of Bucharest is divided into six sectors, each with its own local government. The eight development regions help collect statistical data according to European rules. They are Nord-Est (North-East), Sud-Est (South-East), Sud - Muntenia (South - Muntenia), Sud-Vest Oltenia (South-West Oltenia), Vest (West), Nord-Vest (North-West), Centru (Centre), and București - Ilfov (Bucharest - Ilfov). These regions are based on geography and population density.