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Romania Settlement Structure
Romania's population, which reached 23 million in 1987,
was
distributed quite unevenly across the country. In 1985
some 56
percent of the population lived on the plains, where
population
density exceeded 150 inhabitants per square kilometer. The
national
average was about 92 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Some 38
percent lived in the hilly regions, mostly in the
foothills of the
Carpathians. The mountainous regions had the lowest
density,
although many of the country's earliest settlements were
built in
the higher elevations of the Sub-Carpathian depressions
adjoining
the mountains, which offered protection from invaders.
Until
relatively recently, population densities were higher in
the
Carpathian foothills of Walachia than on the plains
themselves. In
addition to the thinly populated mountains, the
waterlogged region
of Dobruja continued to have a low population density,
with fewer
than fifty inhabitants per square kilometer.
Data as of July 1989
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