# Where do the children go to school?

*Marius Comper · 9 September 2026 · [Interactive version](https://mariuscomper.uk/unde-merg-copiii/en/) · [Ediția în română](https://mariuscomper.uk/unde-merg-copiii/)*

Between 2015 and 2019, 1,060,840 children were born in Romania, counted by the locality where the mother had her registered address. In the autumn of 2025, when those children were between 6 and 10, the country’s preparatory year and grades 1–4 held 903,541 pupils. **Per 100 children born, the country has 85 pupils in primary school**: 91 in towns, 79 in communes. The two counts do not follow the same children, but the gap between them has few possible explanations: the school of the next town, families who moved to another locality or another country, children not enrolled. The interactive version shows, for each of the 3,181 localities, how many primary pupils it has per 100 children born there, its neighbours, its path since 2000 and what INS records there.

- **85** primary pupils in 2025 per 100 children born in 2015–2019, nationwide.
- **91 · 79**: the same ratio in towns and cities, and in communes.
- **148** localities with fewer than 50 pupils per 100 children born.
- **153** localities with more than 110 pupils per 100 children born.

## From 100 to 85

In 2000–2005 Romania had about 100 pupils in grades 1–4 for every 100 children born 7 to 10 years earlier. By 2011 the ratio had reached 94. From 2012, when the preparatory year was introduced and the cohort grew from four to five birth years, the ratio is measured a little differently and has since stayed between 84 and 89. In 2025 it is 85.

The lower-secondary line is easier to read, because its window never changed. Between 2004 and 2010 the country had, on average, 93 lower-secondary pupils per 100 children born 11 to 14 years earlier; between 2012 and 2016 it had, on average, 89; in 2025 it has 83. The missing children were mostly born between 2011 and 2014, the years after Romania joined the European Union.

The gap between 100 and 85 has at least five sources, and the data cannot separate them: children of mothers registered here but living abroad; children who left after birth; children who go to school in another locality; children not enrolled; and, in a few places, registrations that track a document rather than a person. Counted by the mother’s usual residence, births in 2015–2019 number 1,039,823, 2% fewer, and the ratio only rises from 85 to 87. At locality level the difference can be enormous: in Gârla Mare, Mehedinți, 290 children were registered by address and 70 by residence; the primary school has 43 pupils.

## School catchments

Găești, in Dâmbovița, registered 604 children born between 2015 and 2019 and has 903 primary pupils: 150 per 100. In the six neighbouring communes the ratio runs from 52 to 71; their combined deficit equals two thirds of the town’s surplus; the data do not track pupils’ journeys. The surplus is the number of pupils above the country’s 85 per 100; the neighbours’ deficit adds up the pupils the bordering localities lack to reach the same level.

| Locality | Born 2015–2019 | Pupils 2025 | Per 100 | Above national level | Neighbours’ deficit |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Beiuș (city, Bihor) | 492 | 777 | 158 | +358 | −164 |
| Găești (town, Dâmbovița) | 604 | 903 | 150 | +389 | −264 |
| Focșani (city, Vrancea) | 3,657 | 4,227 | 116 | +1,112 | −323 |
| Târgoviște (city, Dâmbovița) | 3,919 | 4,549 | 116 | +1,211 | −512 |
| Satu Mare (city, Satu Mare) | 4,880 | 5,292 | 108 | +1,136 | −679 |
| Pitești (city, Argeș) | 7,595 | 9,021 | 119 | +2,552 | −548 |
| Sibiu (city, Sibiu) | 7,766 | 9,217 | 119 | +2,603 | −709 |
| Cluj-Napoca (city, Cluj) | 17,146 | 18,755 | 109 | +4,151 | −1,048 |

Bucharest is the case turned inside out: 109,604 children born, 87,830 pupils, 80 per 100. Ilfov has 97, and 15 of its localities pass 110; Berceni has 1,027 pupils for 346 children born. Ilfov’s surplus, nearly 3,000 pupils, covers more than half of Bucharest’s shortfall of roughly 5,500. Nationwide the two columns balance by construction: the localities above the national level have 77,802 pupils more between them, and those below it 68,973 fewer.

## The emptiest and the fullest

Of the 2,883 localities coloured on the map, 956 have between 78 and 91 pupils per 100 children born, and the median is 80; 400 lie between 45 and 64, 92 are under 45, 140 lie between 110 and 149, and 13 pass 150.

Only localities with at least 100 children born in the cohort window; primary pupils per 100 children born, 2025.

Fewest: Târșolț (Satu Mare) 13 · Gârla Mare (Mehedinți) 15 · Mănăstirea Humorului (Suceava) 19 · Muntenii de Sus (Vaslui) 20 · Beclean (Brașov) 22 · Călărași (Dolj) 22 · Paleu (Bihor) 22 · Moșoaia (Argeș) 23 · Bixad (Satu Mare) 23 · Țăndărei (Ialomița) 24.

Most: Berceni (Ilfov) 297 · Dumbrăvița (Timiș) 185 · Măgurele (Ilfov) 165 · Dragomirești-Vale (Ilfov) 165 · Otopeni (Ilfov) 162 · Șuțești (Brăila) 162 · Beiuș (Bihor) 158 · Brănești (Ilfov) 157 · Horezu (Vâlcea) 151 · Voluntari (Ilfov) 151.

Lower secondary, fewest (children born 2011–2014): Fizeșu Gherlii (Cluj) 0 · Paleu (Bihor) 0 · Turdaș (Hunedoara) 0 · Târșolț (Satu Mare) 9 · Muntenii de Sus (Vaslui) 13 · Gârla Mare (Mehedinți) 14 · Bărbulești (Ialomița) 16 · Țăndărei (Ialomița) 18 · Milcovul (Vrancea) 22 · Certeze (Satu Mare) 22.

## The counties

| County | Pupils per 100 children born | Towns | Communes | Localities under 50 | Localities over 110 |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Vaslui * | 61 | 55 | 68 | 11 | 0 |
| Iași * | 72 | 70 | 75 | 7 | 2 |
| Mehedinți | 74 | 86 | 63 | 7 | 2 |
| Ialomița | 74 | 73 | 76 | 3 | 6 |
| Galați | 76 | 75 | 77 | 2 | 1 |
| Hunedoara | 77 | 78 | 73 | 5 | 1 |
| Bacău | 78 | 85 | 71 | 11 | 1 |
| Caraș-Severin | 80 | 83 | 75 | 5 | 3 |
| București | 80 | 80 | – | 0 | 0 |
| Botoșani | 81 | 89 | 76 | 4 | 1 |
| Maramureș | 81 | 88 | 72 | 4 | 3 |
| Neamț | 81 | 95 | 73 | 2 | 2 |
| Teleorman | 81 | 86 | 79 | 7 | 2 |
| Vrancea | 83 | 102 | 73 | 7 | 2 |
| Satu Mare | 83 | 105 | 68 | 9 | 2 |
| Suceava | 83 | 92 | 77 | 4 | 1 |
| Dolj | 85 | 95 | 73 | 5 | 1 |
| Tulcea | 85 | 93 | 78 | 2 | 1 |
| Bistrița-Năsăud | 86 | 102 | 76 | 2 | 1 |
| Călărași | 87 | 81 | 91 | 1 | 7 |
| Gorj | 87 | 100 | 73 | 3 | 4 |
| Olt | 87 | 97 | 78 | 6 | 1 |
| Arad | 87 | 93 | 80 | 1 | 4 |
| Dâmbovița | 88 | 118 | 76 | 5 | 7 |
| Sălaj | 88 | 98 | 81 | 3 | 1 |
| Timiș | 89 | 89 | 88 | 1 | 8 |
| Brăila | 89 | 89 | 89 | 0 | 4 |
| Alba | 89 | 98 | 76 | 4 | 4 |
| Buzău | 89 | 99 | 82 | 0 | 0 |
| Prahova | 91 | 99 | 83 | 2 | 5 |
| Mureș | 91 | 102 | 82 | 1 | 8 |
| Constanța | 92 | 93 | 88 | 0 | 2 |
| Bihor | 93 | 110 | 77 | 7 | 4 |
| Covasna | 93 | 104 | 85 | 2 | 2 |
| Sibiu | 93 | 103 | 79 | 1 | 1 |
| Argeș | 94 | 113 | 75 | 7 | 6 |
| Brașov | 95 | 99 | 86 | 3 | 7 |
| Cluj | 95 | 107 | 75 | 4 | 5 |
| Harghita | 96 | 107 | 88 | 0 | 6 |
| Giurgiu | 96 | 97 | 96 | 0 | 8 |
| Vâlcea | 96 | 107 | 84 | 1 | 12 |
| Ilfov | 97 | 99 | 96 | 1 | 15 |

\* Vaslui and Iași have a ratio that looks artificially low: the birth series of the two cities jumps abruptly between 2013 and 2021 and then returns, while pupil numbers stay unchanged. The two cities and the commune of Moșna are left out of the rankings.

## What this page does not say

A school unit, in the INS definition, is an entity with legal personality, not a building. In the autumn of 2025, 3,168 localities report primary pupils, but only 2,850 have a primary-and-lower-secondary school unit seated in them. The fall in the number of units, from 13,985 in 1995 to 3,806 in 2025, cannot be read as a count of schools closed; most of it is the reorganisation of 2003–2006.

## Method and sources

Data: INS TEMPO-Online, POP201D (live births by locality, 1990–2025), POP201K (by usual residence, from 2012), SCL103D (school population by level and locality, 1992–2025), SCL101C, SCL105B, SCL106C, SCL107C, SCL110B, downloaded on the night of 8 to 9 September 2026. The cohort for school year t: children born in years t−10 to t−6 from 2012 onwards (t−10 to t−7 before) for primary and t−14 to t−11 for lower secondary. The ratio is the number of pupils divided by the cohort, times 100. The map colours only localities with at least 50 children born; the rankings require 100. Outlines: geo-spatial.org and ANCPI, CC BY-SA 4.0. The figures are descriptive; they do not say where the missing children are.