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Budget execution 2016–2025
Where town halls’ money goes, and in which month it is paid
Of 100 lei, how many go to roads, schools, social assistance? The answer for every commune, city and county in 2025, plus the investment calendar since 2016, from the Ministry of Finance’s budget execution. In 2025, communes paid 22 of every 100 lei of investment in December.
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100 lei
Of every 100 lei, communes give 19 to administration and 18 to roads
In 2025, the 2,862 communes paid 46.5 bn lei together. This is how 100 lei are split, on average:
lei out of every 100 lei spent
- Town hall and administration19
- Roads, streets and transport18
- Social assistance17
- Water, lighting, housing and energy17
- Schools, kindergartens and nurseries11
- Waste, sewage and environment11
- Culture, sport and parks4
- Local police and fire brigade1
- Health1
- Other1
The map shows, for each place, the item it spent the most on. The figures include the bodies the town hall runs: schools, libraries, sometimes hospitals, counted under their own items, not under administration. Social assistance includes the wages of personal assistants of people with severe disabilities, paid by the town hall.
Size
Small communes spend nearly twice as much per resident
Communes of up to 1,500 residents spend 7,202 lei per resident (median); those of 5,001–10,000 residents spend 3,952 lei. Of a small commune’s money, 24% goes to administration, against 18% in one of 5,001–10,000 residents.
| Residents | Communes | Per resident | Administration |
|---|---|---|---|
| up to 1,500 | 465 | 7,202 lei | 24% |
| 1,501–3,000 | 1,187 | 5,087 lei | 22% |
| 3,001–5,000 | 812 | 4,197 lei | 20% |
| 5,001–10,000 | 353 | 3,952 lei | 18% |
| over 10,000 | 45 | 4,369 lei | 17% |
Medians for each group of communes, 2025. The map shows the administration share of each place’s money.
Investment
A third of communes’ money goes to investment
Investment is capital spending from the local budget (title 71): construction, roads, networks, equipment. In 2025 it was 36% of communes’ money; the median commune invested 32%. From one commune to the next, the share runs from zero to over 80%.
EU-funded and recovery-plan projects are booked under other budget titles (56, 58, 60 and 61): another 13 lei in every 100 in 2025. They are not counted as investment, except in the check in the election chapter. These are payments in the year, not project values: a work paid over two years shows up in both.
The calendar
In 297 communes, more than half of 2025’s investment was paid in December
If payments were even from month to month, each month would hold 8%. In December, communes together paid 25% of the year’s investment in 2016, 21% in 2020, 21% in 2024 and 22% in 2025. In eight of the ten years, December held at least a fifth; in the other two, 19% (2017) and 14% (2023).
The median commune paid 16% of 2025’s investment in December; the 297 are among the 2,837 communes with data. The map shows December’s share in 2025; the calendar shows every year.
The data show when money was paid, not why, and only for investment under title 71. With a place chosen, its share appears in the calendar.
The elections
The test written in advance failed: the share was above its neighbours in 2016 and 2024, not in 2020
The investment share of communes’ money was 5.6 percentage points above the average of the neighbouring years in 2016 (median, commune by commune; the only neighbouring year is 2017, the weakest) and 7.6 in 2024, both years with local elections in June. In 2020, with the elections moved to September, the difference was −0.7. The highest share in ten years is 2024 (42%); the lowest are 2017 (23%) and 2023 (27%).
Before any calculation we wrote a test: all three years above their neighbours. With investment as title 71, as written, it failed because of 2020. Adding EU-funded and PNRR projects (+5.8, +1.1 and +6.1) makes it pass, but we chose that definition after seeing the result, so it is only a hint. The months show no build-up before the vote: in June 2016 and June 2024 payments are no higher than in the surrounding months.
2024 had local, European, presidential and parliamentary elections; 2016 and 2020, local and parliamentary. National programmes and EU money keep their own calendars. The data do not separate these causes.
A place and a county
For every place, sentences ready to quote and a table
Search for a commune, a city, a village or a county. Its card appears below the map: sentences generated from the data, a comparison with places of the same size and with the county, the payment calendar and a table to download. A county adds up its town halls; the County Council, which pays for hospitals, county roads and child protection, has a separate budget. Go to the card ↓