The changing demographic profile of Romanian rural areas

In recent decades, most European countries were faced with concerning demographic phenomena, having as main characteristic the falling birth rate and an aging population. Depending on the existing socio-economic conditions, these phenomena were different from country to country: Romania was not an exception to those trends in Europe. The main objective of this paper is to highlight the key features of rural demographic structures and their evolution. Based on the proposed objective, analysis was conducted on three levels with related questions: i) rural demographic structures and dynamics – is possible a sustainable rural development in the context of a continuing deterioration of human capital?; ii) spatial disparities – which are the specific demographic characteristics at the different territorial levels?; iii) proposals - which are the ways for improving the condition of rural population?. Analysis of the statistical data revealed the following characteristics: i) rural population is constantly decreasing, a process that started with the Revolution of 1989; ii) the rural population growth rate has negative values increasingly larger since 1992 - a process with a strong territorial footprint; iii) rural population shows a pronounced aging process; iv) main drivers of population decline are negative natural increase and migration. iv) at the local level there is a process of population concentration in highly and newly urbanized areas; in parallel, there is a depopulation of the rural areas, particularly of the peripheral ones.