Beia
Most inhabitants: 957, in 1910.
| Census | Inhabitants | Of peak |
|---|---|---|
| 1850 | 770 | 80% |
| 1857 | 741 | 77% |
| 1869 | 744 | 78% |
| 1880 | 829 | 87% |
| 1890 | 841 | 88% |
| 1900 | 882 | 92% |
| 1910 | 957 | 100% |
| 1930 | 944 | 99% |
| 1941 | 858 | 90% |
| 1956 | 799 | 83% |
| 1966 | 722 | 75% |
| 1977 | 837 | 87% |
| 1992 | 361 | 38% |
| 2002 | 378 | 39% |
The village at its peak
Every village was once at its fullest. For 4,066 villages in Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș, the censuses from 1850 to 2002 say which year that was, and how much of it remains.
1910
Beia, Brașov · 1910: 957 inhabitants — the peak year.
In short: of the 4,066 villages in the tables with at least six censuses and a 2002 count, 1,720 — 42% — had fallen below half of their largest count by 2002, and the typical village still held 55% of its peak. Peak years spread across a century: no census holds more than 20% of villages, and only 147 villages peaked as late as 2002.
Your village
peak by 19101930–19411956–19771992–2002
A century of peak years
If every village had risen and fallen together, the peak years would crowd into one. They do not: the most common peak year, 1941, holds 20% of villages, followed by 1910 (15%) and 1956 (14%); the rest spread over the other censuses. The ranking hangs on 1941: without that census, 1956 comes first. At one end, 335 villages never again reached their 1869 count; at the other, 364 had their largest population in 1977.
Villages still growing at the last census used here are few: 147 villages (4%) peak in 2002 and another 142 in 1992. For the other nine tenths, the fullest year is already behind them, sometimes by a century.
How much of each village's peak is left
42%of villages were below half of their largest count in 2002 (1,720 villages)
55%of its peak is what the typical village still held in 2002
4%of villages were at their peak in 2002 (147 villages)
The share does not hang on a single census or on villages whose borders moved. Leave out any one census, or set aside the 897 villages where the tables note a part split off, merged in or counted with another place, and the share below half stays between 40% and 42%, with the typical village keeping 55–57%. Among the 2,448 villages recorded as early as 1850, the share is 44%.
Distance to the nearest town mostly changes how much is left. Villages within 10 km of a town typically kept nearly two thirds of their peak (median); those over 25 km away, under half. Villages higher up lost more too:
| Distance to a town | Villages | Left of peak (median) | Commonest peak year |
|---|---|---|---|
| within 10 km | 1,526 | 64% | 1941 (18%) |
| 10–25 km | 2,415 | 51% | 1941 (22%) |
| over 25 km | 116 | 46% | 1910 (20%) |
| Altitude | Villages | Left of peak (median) | Commonest peak year |
|---|---|---|---|
| under 300 m | 1,843 | 59% | 1910 (18%) |
| 300-600 m | 1,833 | 53% | 1941 (23%) |
| over 600 m | 381 | 47% | 1941 (27%) |
How it was counted
The series come from Varga E. Árpád's per-locality census tables (Erdélyi Magyar Adatbank), which gather the censuses of 1850–2002 for 16 counties of Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș. One thing only was taken from each table: the locality's total number of inhabitants at each census.
The censuses used are those of 1850, 1857, 1869, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1930, 1941, 1956, 1966, 1977, 1992 and 2002. The 1920 count appears in only one of the two tables and is left out of the series; adding it does not change the percentages.
Component localities (villages) with at least six censuses and a 2002 count were kept. The 75 towns proper appear in search but stay out of the village percentages; commune and county totals were never mixed with villages. The percentages describe the villages in the tables, not every village in the country.
Census methods changed over 150 years: counts of the people present, later of the domiciled population, across borders that moved as well. Each number is therefore labelled with its year only, and a change of method can shift one village's peak by a single census.
For 311 villages the peak falls at the first census in their series; the true peak may be older. Villages that merged or split keep the rows as printed in the tables, without reconstructing historical boundaries: for 897 villages the tables' notes record such a change, and the village card says so. Another 13 villages have nobody recorded in 2002.
The last year is 2002, the last per-village census in these tables. The percentages say how much was left in 2002, not how much there is now. For communes across the whole country between 2002 and 2021, see the neighbouring page on emptying communes.
Map coordinates are from GeoNames, matched by village name and kept only where they fall inside the county outline; link codes are SIRUTA codes, matched within the village's own commune. Villages without a reliable match appear in search but not on the map (9 of 4,141 localities).
Sources and related pages
- Varga E. Árpád, Erdély etnikai és felekezeti statisztikája (Pro-Print, Miercurea Ciuc, 1998–2002), electronic edition with the 2002 data, Erdélyi Magyar Adatbank, varga.adatbank.ro — locality totals only, 16 counties.
- INS SIRUTA register, first semester of 2026 — locality codes.
- GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) — coordinates; ANCPI administrative outlines via geo-spatial.org — the map.
On the same theme, on this site: