Abstract:

This study aims to analyze the evolution of the rural population and the main rural infrastructure issues during the period 2008-2017. The data were collected from the National Institute of Statistics and the fixed basis index and comparison method were used to establish the evolution of the following indicators: rural population, number of school units, number of graduates, number of localities connected to drinking water network, to the sewerage network, to the gas distribution network and to the distribution networks of thermal energy.

The results showed that rural population represents 43.63% of the Romania’s population, and is in a continuous decline due to the low birth rate, high mortality rate and migration. In 2017, 2217 localities were connected to the drinking water distribution network, which means that only 77.5% of the communes of Romania have this facility. Only a third of the communes were connected to the sewerage network. Less than one fourth of all localities are connected to the natural gas distribution network.