Marius Comper

Population census, 1 December 2021

Half the people, in 204 places

The census counted 19,053,815 resident inhabitants and placed them in 3,181 municipalities, towns and communes. Weigh people, and half the country lives in 204 places, the other half in 2,977 places. Weigh places, and the middle of the list is Budești, in Maramureș, a commune of 2,894 inhabitants.

The place balance

The beam holds all 3,181 places, from Bătrâna (88 inhabitants) to Bucharest (1,716,961). Move the fulcrum. The pans change size with the people on each arm. The left pan counts smaller places. The right pan holds the selected place and everything larger.

Dofteana

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    Markers

    The middle of the list is a commune of 2,894 inhabitants

    Budești, in Maramureș, sits at the midpoint when you count municipalities, towns and communes from smallest to largest: 1,590 places are smaller, 1,590 are larger. The 1,590 places below that mark hold 2,927,977 people, 15.4 percent of the country. Cut the administrative list in half and one arm is a country of villages and small towns, the other almost everyone else.

    The people-balance falls at Dofteana

    Dofteana, a commune in Bacău county with 10,236 inhabitants, is the lightest place on the heavy pan. From there up, 204 places hold 9,529,215 people (50.01 percent). From Belcești down, 2,977 places hold 9,524,600 (49.99 percent). The two arms match in people. In places, one is 204, the other 2,977.

    Bucharest outweighs 1,110 places put together

    The municipality of Bucharest had 1,716,961 resident inhabitants, 9.0 percent of the country. The 1,110 smallest municipalities, towns and communes, added together, reach 1,716,192. Bucharest exceeds them by 769 people. Against Bătrâna, the commune in Hunedoara with 88 inhabitants, the capital is 19,511 times larger.

    Seventeen municipalities hold a quarter of the country

    From Bucharest to Baia Mare, seventeen municipalities add up to 4,779,240 inhabitants, 25.1 percent of the resident population. In order: București, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Constanța, Timișoara, Brașov, Craiova, Galați, Oradea, Ploiești, Brăila, Arad, Pitești, Bacău, Sibiu, Târgu Mureș, Baia Mare. A quarter of the people live in these municipalities.

    Communes are 89.9 percent of places and 47.8 percent of people

    The census counts 103 municipalities, 217 towns and 2,861 communes. Municipalities hold 7,887,647 inhabitants (41.4 percent), towns 2,054,844 (10.8 percent), communes 9,111,324 (47.8 percent). Nine places in ten are communes. Almost one person in two lives in a municipality. The mean place, 5,990 inhabitants, sits above the middle of the list because Bucharest and the other municipalities pull the beam up.

    A map of places and a balance of people

    A map of Romania by administrative unit treats Bătrâna and Bucharest as two equal points. A people-balance separates them by a factor of 19,511. Counting places and counting inhabitants describe different countries. The beam above holds both, with the fulcrum in view.

    Method and sources

    Population is the resident population on 1 December 2021, published by Romania's National Institute of Statistics. The balance holds the 3,181 municipalities, towns and communes, whose sum is 19,053,815, the national total. Villages stay off the beam: each place enters once, with all its inhabitants. Places are ordered from smallest to largest. The default fulcrum sits at Dofteana, where the two arms each hold half the people. The middle of the list, Budești, is position 1,591 of 3,181. Every number on the page is counted from these places.

    1. National Institute of Statistics, Population and Housing Census 2021, final results. Table 1.22. Resident population by sex, county, municipality, town, commune and village, 1 December 2021.
    2. Table 1.22, published by INS on 30 May 2023.

    The page is a snapshot of the 2021 census. The next public weighing of this kind will be possible when INS publishes the equivalent table for the following round.