Regional dimensions of rural development in Romania

• Author: Duguleana L., Duguleana C., Polgar (Deszke) K.D.
• Pages: 151-176

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 10 (59) No. 1 - 2017

Regional dimensions of rural development

in Romania

Liliana DUGULEANĂ1, Constantin DUGULEANĂ2,

POLGÁR (DESZKE) Klára – Dalma3

Abstract: The National Programme of Rural Development for the period 2014-2020,

established the modalities how to use the measures of LEADER program, by its already

implemented infrastructure, as a certain number of Local Action Groups (LAGs) in each

county. This paper presents the relative position of Romanian counties and of administrative

development regions, in 2012, depending on the rural development stage and considering

also the managerial approach through LEADER program, until 2014. The results are useful

for the managers at county level and at administrative region level, but also at national level,

preoccupied by the implementation of rural development programs. Using multivariate

methods of descriptive analysis: Principal Components Analysis and classifying with Cluster

method, in SPSS software, our paper offers also a scientific approach for comparative

analyses. The conclusions are formulated based on the analyses "in mirror" at counties’

level, and at administrative regions’ level, using the results obtained with the two descriptive

methods.

Key-words: rural development, county profile, Principal Components Analysis, Cluster

method

1. Introduction

According to NUTS (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, French

language), the geographical economic classification within the EU Member States,

Romania has 42 units at NUTS3 level - 41 counties and Bucharest area, 8

administrative regions at NUTS2 level, grouped in 4 macro-regions at NUTS1 level.

The national territory of Romania has a surface of 238,391 km² and a

population of 21,356 million inhabitants. The NUTS territorial units are defined as

geographical area delimited in according with established intervals of residential

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, ldugul@unitbv.ro

2 Transilvania University of Braşov, cduguleana@unitbv.ro

3 PhD student at Transilvania University of Braşov, polgarklaradalma@yahoo.com

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov - Vol. 10 (59), No. 1 - 2017 • Series V

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population size, and having an administrative authority. The population size for

NUTS3 units is between 150,000 and 800,000 people.

(http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/35209/35256/Urban_rural_poster_3levels_

A1_Aug2013.pdf/06a732d8-b614-4c81-844e-c0a9e330aec0)

Romania has an equilibrate division of its territory, in the eight development

regions NUTS2, as it follows: 14.33% North-West, 14.30% Centre, 15.46% for

North-East, 15% South-East, 14.45% South, 12.25% South-West, 13.44% West, and

only 0.76% for Bucharest – Ilfov (National Rural Development Programme -

NRDP, 2014-2020).

Romania has had in 2012 a rural space of 207,522 km², as defined by the

national law, representing 87% of its territory and 46% of Romanian population,

living there. In 2013, the proportion of rural population at national level was 46.1%

and in 2014, it decreased at 43.6%.

Bucharest has no rural population, but Bucharest area has had 10.2% in 2013

and 8.3% in 2014 (2014 Romanian Statistical Yearbook, http://www.insse.ro/

cms/ro/content/anuarele-statistice-ale-Romaniei).

The rural population is not uniformly distributed within the development

regions in Romania, as it can be seen in Fig. 1, for the years 2013 and 2014. In Fig.

1 there can be noticed the decreasing changes of rural population for all NUTS2

regions, in 2014.

Year 2013 Year 2014

Fig. 1. The rural population proportions of Romanian NUTS2 regions

in 2013 and 2014

Compared with 2013, in 2014, the rural population proportions decreased in all the

development regions. In descending order of rural population proportions of the

NUTS2 regions is the same in 2014, as in 2013 and 2012. In 2014, some regions

have greater weights of rural population, as: 57.1% in South region, 55.2% in North-

East, 50.2% in South-West, followed by North-West with 45.6%, South-East with