What each commune gotROEN

Investigation · six programmes · 3,186 communes, towns and Bucharest districts

What each Romanian commune has been paid by the Development Ministry

Since 2015 Romania’s Development Ministry has paid town halls and county councils 98.3 billion lei (about €19.8 billion; the leu is Romania’s currency) through three big programmes and three small ones. This map adds up all six and shows what each commune, the smallest unit of local government, usually a handful of villages, received per inhabitant. A typical commune received 6,680 lei a head; small ones far more. A test of the mayor’s party, written down in advance, finds two gaps in opposite directions: for the second stage of the old local-development programme, contracted mostly under a Social Democrat (PSD) government, communes with PSD mayors received more per inhabitant than those run by the Liberals (PNL); for money after 2021, less.

Each of the 3,186 communes, towns and Bucharest districts, shaded by ministry money paid per inhabitant against the 150 communes (or towns) closest in population; cities and Bucharest districts are compared with the typical city or district. The button above switches the map to lei per inhabitant. County-council money (10.3 billion lei) is not assigned to any commune. Sources: Development Ministry status and payment lists, 17 March – 22 October 2026; population: 2022 census.

98.3 billion lei in six programmes#

Romania’s Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration (MDLPA) funds town halls through national programmes: the state pays, the town hall or county council builds. Three are big. The National Local Development Programme (PNDL), launched in 2015, had paid 44.7 billion lei by 30 June 2026. Anghel Saligny, which replaced it in 2022 and is named after a 19th-century engineer, had paid 31.0 billion by the same date. Through Romania’s share of the EU recovery fund (PNRR), the ministry paid 22.1 billion lei in 39,345 payments up to 22 October 2026.

The other three are small. The programme for earthquake-proofing public buildings has paid 312 million lei, “safe and healthy schools” 127 million, and the hospital programme has seven contracts worth 251 million lei and no payment as of 17 March 2026. All six lists give the beneficiary’s SIRUTA code, Romania’s official place code, so they can be added up commune by commune.

Money paid by the Development Ministry, by programme (billion lei)PNDL44.7 bnAnghel Saligny31.0 bnPNRR22.1 bnEarthquake-proofing312 mSafe schools127 mHospitals0
Money paid by the Development Ministry, by programme (billion lei)
PNDL44.7 bnAnghel Saligny31.0 bnPNRR22.1 bnEarthquake-proofing312 mSafe schools127 mHospitals0

Of the total, 89% went to communes, towns, cities and Bucharest’s six districts, and 10.3 billion to county councils, for county roads, hospitals and special schools. Associations of communes received 845 million, mostly for gas networks. Communes alone took 62% of the money, although 44% of the population lives in them.

A typical commune received 6,680 lei per inhabitant#

Divided by the population of the 2022 census, the money gives a sum per head. The commune in the middle of the list received 6,680 lei per inhabitant (about €1,340). One commune in ten received under 2,030 lei and one in ten over 15,290. The typical town received 4,080 lei a head and the typical city 1,920. Big towns have other sources of money, which are not on the map.

The most visible difference is by size. The smallest communes, under 1,710 inhabitants, typically received 10,850 lei a head; the largest, over 4,612 inhabitants, 3,780. A road or a water network does not shrink with the village.

Lei paid per inhabitant in the typical commune, by commune size119–1,709 inhabitants: 10,85010,850119–1,709inhabitants1,710–2,391 inhabitants: 8,5308,5301,710–2,391inhabitants2,392–3,218 inhabitants: 7,2107,2102,392–3,218inhabitants3,220–4,611 inhabitants: 5,5705,5703,220–4,611inhabitants4,613+ inhabitants: 3,7803,7804,613+inhabitants
Lei paid per inhabitant in the typical commune, by commune size
119–1,709 inhabitants: 10,85010,850119–1,709inhabitants1,710–2,391 inhabitants: 8,5308,5301,710–2,391inhabitants2,392–3,218 inhabitants: 7,2107,2102,392–3,218inhabitants3,220–4,611 inhabitants: 5,5705,5703,220–4,611inhabitants4,613+ inhabitants: 3,7803,7804,613+inhabitants

So the map compares each commune with the 150 communes closest to it in population, nationwide. A ratio of 1 means it received what a typical commune of its size did. 262 communes received at least double, and 497 half or less.

Who received most, and who nothing#

The highest payments per inhabitant went to Brebu Nou (Caraș-Severin county, 300 inhabitants), with 58,360 lei a head, then Măldărești (Vâlcea) and Bătrâna (Hunedoara). In a small commune one large project can be enough to top the table. Among communes of over 1,500 people, the highest sum against communes of similar population went to Măldărești (Vâlcea), 6 times the typical sum, followed by Gostinari (Giurgiu) and Vulturu (Vrancea).

Twenty-one places have no recorded payment in any of the six lists. They include Chiajna and Glina, next to Bucharest, and Brazi in Prahova county. Telega, Racoș and Șinca appear in the Saligny list, but with no payment as of 30 June 2026. The full list: Brazi (Prahova), C.A. Rosetti (Tulcea), Certeju de Sus (Hunedoara), Chiajna (Ilfov), Comana (Brașov), Corbu (Constanța), Dobromir (Constanța), Dobrotești (Dolj), Dragoslavele (Argeș), Dârmănești (Argeș), Glina (Ilfov), Jina (Sibiu), Movileni (Galați), Porumbești (Satu Mare), Racoș (Brașov), Sectorul 1 (București), Sânmartin (Harghita), Săvinești (Neamț), Telega (Prahova), Târnava (Sibiu), Șinca (Brașov).

The mayor’s party: ahead in PNDL II, behind after 2021#

The test was written down before it was run and is published with the data. For each commune what counts is the party of the mayor elected in 2016, for the second stage of PNDL, contracted in 2017–2020, mostly in 2017–2019, under a government of the Social Democrats (PSD) and their junior partner, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE); and of the mayor elected in 2020, for Saligny, PNRR and the small programmes, allocated under the coalition governments of 2021–2024. The comparison is between communes in the same county and of the same size, PSD against the centre-right National Liberals (PNL); the threshold fixed in advance is a gap of at least 10%, with a range that does not cross zero.

In PNDL II, the main test estimates a gap of +63% in favour of PSD-run communes. Its measure mixes communes that got nothing with those that got something, so two checks added after the test show what lies behind it. Before adjustment, 93.7% of PSD-run communes received money from the stage, against 87.8% of PNL-run ones. And among communes with payments, PSD-run ones received 18% more per inhabitant, with a range of 5% to 32%; for allocated sums the gap is similar (+19%).

Communes with PSD mayors against communes with PNL mayors, same county and size−50%0%+50%+100%PNDL II, communes with payments (post-hoc check) · mayors of 201618% (5% … 32%)+18%PNDL II, all communes (main test)63% (22% … 117%)+63%After 2021: Saligny, PNRR and small programmes (main test) · mayors of 2020-25% (-39% … -7%)−25%Saligny, communes with payments (post-hoc check)-9% (-16% … -1%)−9%PNRR, communes with payments (post-hoc check)-5% (-13% … 4%)−5%
Communes with PSD mayors against communes with PNL mayors, same county and size
−50%0%+50%+100%PNDL II, communes with payments (post-hoc check) · mayors of 201618% (5% … 32%)+18%PNDL II, all communes (main test)63% (22% … 117%)+63%After 2021: Saligny, PNRR and small programmes (main test) · mayors of 2020-25% (-39% … -7%)−25%Saligny, communes with payments (post-hoc check)-9% (-16% … -1%)−9%PNRR, communes with payments (post-hoc check)-5% (-13% … 4%)−5%

For money allocated after 2021, the main test shows a gap the other way: −25% for PSD-run communes. Post-hoc checks by programme show where it comes from. Under PNRR the gap is −30% across all communes but −5% among communes with payments, within the margin of error. Another post-hoc check finds that 63.3% of PSD-run communes received PNRR money, against 70.1% of PNL-run ones before adjustment; after adjustment the gap is −5 percentage points. Under Saligny, among communes with payments, the gap is −9%, below the 10% threshold. The earlier investigation of Anghel Saligny did not find a party-related difference in allocation per head either.

In close races in 2020, won by under five points between PSD and PNL, PSD-run communes received less, but the range crosses zero (−78% to +12%), so the check settles nothing. The test shows an association, not a cause: a commune with a PSD mayor in 2016 may differ from a PNL-run one in ways the county and population do not capture, and some mayors changed party after the election.

What the map leaves out#

The map shows only Development Ministry money that the ministry reports as paid, at the date of each list. It does not include EU money through the Regional Operational Programme (POR), the Environment Fund, other ministries’ recovery-fund money, local and county budgets, or sums allocated but not yet paid.

Three of the ministry’s programmes are missing too: the sports halls, pools and village halls of the National Investment Company, whose list is a scanned PDF; social housing and insulated blocks of flats, listed by year without a place code; and seismic surveys, with no list published at all. From PNRR, 216 million lei paid to research institutes, hospitals and the national water agency are left out, as are 3.7 million paid to local councils that the lists do not tie to a single commune.

Method#

PNDL and Saligny come from the ministry’s status lists of 30 June 2026, with the sum settled on each project. PNRR comes from the payment tables published after each round, summed by beneficiary, up to 22 October 2026. Earthquake-proofing, schools and hospitals come from the contract lists uploaded on 17 March 2026. Each sum is tied to its commune by the SIRUTA code in the list. Sums are in current lei, not adjusted for inflation.

Some projects appear under both PNDL and Saligny with the same name, usually a new stage of an old job. For those 186 pairs, the Saligny money is found in Saligny payment claims, and the PNDL contracts date from 2015–2019: they are different payments and are added. The 20 PNDL projects taken over by the regional programme, or whose contracts were not extended, stay in with the payments already made (74 million lei).

The text of the party test, written before it was run, is published with the data below. After the first run the coding was corrected: 56 ALDE mayors of 2016 had been put under “other party” because of a difference in diacritics. An independent review of the code then found 18 PNDL projects left out, alliances coded inconsistently and too narrow a range for the close races. All are corrected here, and the figures above are those after correction.

Data downloads

Sources

  1. Development Ministry: PNDL implementation status, 30 June 2026 mdlpa.ro
  2. Development Ministry: Anghel Saligny programme, project status, Q2 2026 mdlpa.ro
  3. Development Ministry: PNRR payments, 2022 – 22 October 2026 mdlpa.ro
  4. Development Ministry: contract lists for schools (PNSS), hospitals (PNMC) and earthquake-proofing (PNCCRS), 17 March 2026 mdlpa.ro
  5. National Institute of Statistics: resident population by locality, 2022 census recensamantromania.ro
  6. Permanent Electoral Authority: local office-holders elected in 2016 (data.gov.ro), results of 2020 and 2024 data.gov.ro
  7. Commune outlines: geo-spatial.org, after ANCPI geo-spatial.org