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Topic 17 · Demography and depopulation

What infrastructure do we maintain in localities that are emptying out?

The cost of schools, hospitals and roads kept going in areas with rapidly falling populations, based on official demographic data.

Analyses

5 min · updated 15 October 2026Romania lost 1.1 million inhabitants in a decade, but not uniformly39 of the 42 counties fell in population between the two censuses. In some communes the fall exceeds 30%, and the smallest commune in the country now has 88 inhabitants.