Counties of Romania explained

Counties of Romania Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Județele României
Category:	Unitary state
Territory:	Romania
Start Date:	1995 (Current form, 41 + Bucharest)
Start Date1:	1859 (33)
Start Date2:	1926 (71)
Start Date3:	1941 (73)
Start Date4:	1968 (38 + Bucharest + Ilfov Agricultural Sector)
Start Date5:	1981 (40 + Bucharest)
End Date:	1950–1968
Current Number:	41
Number Date:	1995
Exofficio:	electoral constituency
Population Range:	193,355 (TL) – 760,774 (IS)/1,716,983 (B)
Area Range:	228km2 (B)/1583km2 (IF) – 8697km2 (TM)
Government:	County Council and County Council President
Subdivision:	Municipality/town/commune/sector

A total of 41 counties (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: [[județ]]e), along with the municipality of Bucharest, constitute the official administrative divisions of Romania. They represent the country's NUTS-3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics – Level 3) statistical subdivisions within the European Union and each of them serves as the local level of government within its borders. Most counties are named after a major river, while some are named after notable cities within them, such as the county seat.

The earliest organization into județe of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (where they were termed ținuturi) dates back to at least the late 14th century. For most of the time since modern Romania was formed in 1859, the administrative division system has been similar to that of the French departments. The system has since changed several times and the number of counties has varied over time, from the 71 județe that existed before World War II to only 39 after 1968. The current format has largely been in place since 1968 as only small changes have been made since then, the last of which was in 1997.

According to the 2021 census data from the National Institute of Statistics, the average population of Romania's 41 counties is about 423,000, with Iași County as the most populous (760,000) and Tulcea County (193,000) the least. The average county's land area is, with Timiș County the largest and Ilfov County the smallest. The municipality of Bucharest, which has the same administrative level as that of a county, is both more populous and much smaller than any county, with 1,716,983 people and .

History

See main article: Former administrative divisions of Romania. The earliest organization into județe (for Wallachia), and ținuturi (for Moldavia), dates back at least to the late 14th century.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} Inspired from the organization of the late Byzantine Empire, each județ was ruled by a jude (or pârcălab for a ținut), a person officially appointed with administrative and judicial functions.^{[4] [5]} Transylvania was divided into royal counties headed by comes (royal counts) with administrative and judicial functions.^[4]

After modern Romania was formed in 1859 through the union of Wallachia and the rump of Moldavia, the administrative division was modernized using the French administrative system as a model, with județ as the basic administrative unit. Aside from the 1950–1968 period, this system has remained in place until today. Since 1864, for each județ there exists a prefect, a subordinate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and representative of the government inside the county; he is also the head of local administration for areas not delegated to local authorities.^[6] Until 1948, each județ was further divided into several plăși, each administered by a pretor.^[7]

After the adoption of a new Constitution in 1923, the traditional local administrative systems of the newly acquired regions of Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia were made uniform in 1925 with that of the Romanian Old Kingdom. County borders were kept largely intact, with few adjustments, and the total number of counties was raised to 71; this lasted until the beginning of World War II.^[8]

In 1938, King Carol II modified the law on the administration of the Romanian territory according to the fascist model.^[9] Ten ținuturi (approx. translation "lands") were created, ruled by Rezidenți Regali (Royal Residents), appointed directly by the Monarch. The ținuturi represented another layer of administration between counties and the country, as the county borders were not erased.^{[6] [10]}

Due to the territorial changes during World War II, this style of administration did not last, and the administration at the județ level was reintroduced after the war.^[6] Between 1941 and 1944, Romania administered the territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug rivers known as Transnistria, which consisted of 13 separate counties.^[11]

After taking over the administration of the country in 1945, the Communist Party changed the administrative model to that of the Soviet Union (regions and raions) in 1950, but changed it back in 1968.^[12] Nevertheless, the county borders set then were quite different from those present during the interbellum, as only 39 counties were formed from the 56 remaining after the war.^[13]

In 1981, Giurgiu and Călărași were split from Ialomița and the former county of Ilfov,^[13] while in 1997, Ilfov County, which had been a dependency of the municipality of Bucharest for nearly two decades, was reinstated.^{[14] [15]} The county borders set in 1968 are still largely in place today, but the functions of different authorities have changed due to administrative reforms in the 1990s.^{[6] [8]}

At present, Romania is divided into 41 counties and one municipality (Bucharest); these are assigned as the NUTS-3 geocode statistical subdivision scheme of Romania within the European Union.^[16] Each of the counties is further divided into cities (some of which have municipality status) and communes. The prefect and his administration have executive prerogatives within the county limits, while limited legislative powers are assigned to a County Council elected every four years during local elections.^[17] The territorial districts of the Romanian judicial system overlap with county borders, thus avoiding further complication in the separation of powers on the government.^[6]

Current list

class=unsortable	CoA	County	County seat	Name origin ^[18] ^[19]	Region	ISO code ^[20]	Postal code ^[21] ^[22]	Area code ^[23] ^[24]	NUTS code ^[25] ^[26]	Pop. (December 1, 2021)^[27]	Area^[28]	Map
	Alba	Alba Iulia	Alba Iulia	Center	AB	51	58	RO121	325,941	6250km2
	Arad	Arad	county seat	West	AR	31	57	RO421	410,143	7746km2
	Argeș	Pitești	Argeș River	South-Muntenia	AG	11	48	RO311	569,932	6822km2
	Bacău	Bacău	county seat	North-East	BC	60	34	RO211	601,387	6622km2
	Bihor	Oradea	Biharia commune	North-West	BH	41	59	RO111	551,297	7539km2
	Bistrița-Năsăud	Bistrița	Bistrița River and Năsăud city	North-West	BN	42	63	RO112	295,988	5358km2
	Botoșani	Botoșani	county seat	North-East	BT	71	31	RO212	392,821	4987km2
	Brașov	Brașov	county seat	Center	BV	50	68	RO122	546,615	5361km2
	Brăila	Brăila	county seat	South-East	BR	81	39	RO221	281,452	4766km2
	Bucharest^[29]		last name Bucur^[30]	Bucharest-Ilfov	B	01–06 ^[31]	1x ^[32]	RO321	1,716,983	240km2
	Buzău	Buzău	Buzău River	South-East	BZ	12	38	RO222	404,979	6101km2
	Caraș-Severin	Reșița	defunct Caraș and Severin Counties	West	CS	32	55	RO422	246,588	8532km2
	Călărași	Călărași	county seat	South-Muntenia	CL	91	42	RO312	283,458	5087km2
	Cluj	Cluj-Napoca	county seat	North-West	CJ	40	64	RO113	679,141	6672km2
	Constanța	Constanța	county seat	South-East	CT	90	41	RO223	655,997	7104km2
	Covasna	Sfântu Gheorghe	Covasna River	Center	CV	52	67	RO123	200,042	3707km2
	Dâmbovița	Târgoviște	Dâmbovița River	South-Muntenia	DB	13	45	RO313	479,404	4056km2
	Dolj	Craiova	Jiu River^[33]	South-West Oltenia	DJ	20	51	RO411	599,442	7425km2
	Galați	Galați	county seat	South-East	GL	80	36	RO224	496,892	4465km2
	Giurgiu	Giurgiu	county seat	South-Muntenia	GR	08	46	RO314	262,066	3544km2
	Gorj	Târgu Jiu	Jiu River^[34]	South-West Oltenia	GJ	21	53	RO412	314,684	5572km2
	Harghita	Miercurea Ciuc	Harghita Mountains	Center	HR	53	66	RO124	291,950	6637km2
	Hunedoara	Deva	Hunedoara city	West	HD	33	54	RO423	361,657	7072km2
	Ialomița	Slobozia	Ialomița River	South-Muntenia	IL	92	43	RO315	250,816	4455km2
	Iași	Iași	county seat	North-East	IS	70	32	RO213	760,774	5477km2
	Ilfov	Bucharest	Ilfov River	Bucharest-Ilfov	IF	07	1x	RO322	542,686	1564km2
	Maramureș	Baia Mare	Maramureș historical region	North-West	MM	43	62	RO114	452,475	6303km2
	Mehedinți	Drobeta-Turnu Severin	Mehadia commune	South-West Oltenia	MH	22	52	RO413	234,339	4942km2
	Mureș	Târgu Mureș	Mureș River	Center	MS	54	65	RO125	518,193	6705km2
	Neamț	Piatra Neamț	Neamț River	North-East	NT	61	33	RO214	454,203	5897km2
	Olt	Slatina	Olt River	South-West Oltenia	OT	23	49	RO414	383,280	5503km2
	Prahova	Ploiești	Prahova River	South-Muntenia	PH	10	44	RO316	695,117	4715km2
	Satu Mare	Satu Mare	county seat	North-West	SM	44	61	RO115	330,668	4420km2
	Sălaj	Zalău	Sălaj River	North-West	SJ	45	60	RO116	212,224	3867km2
	Sibiu	Sibiu	county seat	Center	SB	55	69	RO126	388,325	5432km2
	Suceava	Suceava	Suceava River	North-East	SV	72	30	RO215	642,551	8553km2
	Teleorman	Alexandria	Teleorman River	South-Muntenia	TR	14	47	RO317	323,544	5788km2
	Timiș	Timișoara	Timiș River	West	TM	30	56	RO424	650,533	8692km2
	Tulcea	Tulcea	county seat	South-East	TL	82	40	RO225	193,355	8484km2
	Vaslui	Vaslui	Vaslui River	North-East	VS	73	35	RO216	374,700	5317km2
	Vâlcea	Râmnicu Vâlcea	medieval county of Vîlcea^[35]	South-West Oltenia	VL	24	50	RO415	341,861	5764km2
	Vrancea	Focșani	medieval county of Vrancha^[36] ^[37]	South-East	VN	62	37	RO226	335,312	4854km2

See also

• Communes of Romania
• Development regions of Romania
• List of Romania county name etymologies
• Former administrative divisions of Romania
• List of Romanian counties by population
• List of cities and towns in Romania
• List of Romanian counties by foreign trade
• Municipiu

Notes

1. Județ originates from the Latin judicium and ținut probably from the Latin tenutum.
2. Web site: Primele atestari documentare ale judetului Valcea (First Historical Mentions of Vâlcea County) . . ro . 2010-01-23 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110720210114/http://www.valcea.insse.ro/main.php?lang=fr&pageid=509 . 2011-07-20 .
3. Web site: De la sat la județ în istoria Olteniei (From Village to County in the History of Oltenia) . Cornel Șomâcu . Vertical . ro . 1841-6063 . 2009-09-09 . 2010-08-22 . 2016-01-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160112035558/http://www.verticalonline.ro/de-la-sat-la-judet-in-istoria-olteniei . live .
4. Book: Cosmin Dariescu. Istoria statului și dreptului românesc din antichitate până la Marea Unire (History of Romanian State and Law from Antiquity until the Unification). C.H. Beck. 2008. 47–51. ro. 21: Organizarea administrativ-teritorială a Țării Românești și a Moldovei în evul mediu (21: Administrative Divisions in Wallachia and Moldavia in the Middle Ages). 978-973-115-337-7.
5. Book: Cosmin Dariescu. Istoria statului și dreptului românesc din antichitate până la Marea Unire (History of Romanian State and Law from Antiquity until the Unification). C.H. Beck. 2008. 35–39. ro. 16: Domnia în Țările Române medievale (16: Rulers in the Romanian Principalities in the Middle Ages) . 978-973-115-337-7.
6. Web site: Scurtă privire istorică (Short View on History) . ro . Instituția Prefectului județul Argeș . 2010-01-22 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120520002501/http://www.prefecturaarges.ro:8080/prefectura/index.jsp?pagina=scurt_istoric . 2012-05-20 .
7. Web site: Valeriu Nicolescu . Un ținut de legendă, județul Buzău (A legendary Land, Buzau County) . Buzau.com . ro . 2010-01-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090214004826/http://buzau.com/judet.htm . 2009-02-14 . dead .
8. 2003–2005 National Human Development Report: Local Governance in Romania. United Nations Development Programme. 35. 2010-01-22. 2021-02-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20210226232512/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/nationalreports/europethecis/romania/romania_2005_en.pdf. live.
9. Encyclopedia: Günther H. Tontsch. de. 0937-7107. Jahrbuch für Europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte (Yearbook of European Administrative History). Juristische Literatur zur rumänischen Verwaltungsgeschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Law Literature on the Romanian Administrative History in the 19th and 20th Centuries) . 12. 2000. 285. Nomos Verlag. Baden-Baden.
10. Book: ro. Ioan Scurtu. Theodora Stănescu-Stanciu. Georgiana Margareta Scurtu. Istoria românilor între anii 1918–1940 (The History of the Romanians in 1918–1940). University of Bucharest. 2002. 8.7. Decret-lege pentru reforma electorală (Law Decree for electoral reform). 2014-07-13. https://web.archive.org/web/20150322225330/http://ebooks.unibuc.ro/istorie/istorie1918-1940/8-7.htm. 2015-03-22. dead.
11. Book: 978-9975-69-049-2. ro. Anatol Petrenci. Basarabia în timpul celui de-al doilea război mondial: 1939–1945 (Bessarabia During the Second World War: 1939–1945) . Ed. Prut Internațional. 2006. Chișinău, Moldova.
12. Web site: Istoria Banatului – În linii mari (History of Banat – A Quick View) . Vestul.ro . 2008-09-10 . 2010-10-22 . ro . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130521104455/http://www.vestul.ro/stiri/1310/in-linii-mari.htm . 2013-05-21 .
13. News: Cum ar trebui să arate harta redesenată a României? (How Should Romania's Redrawn Map Look Like?) . . 2010-03-11 . Petre Mihai Bacanu . ro . 2010-08-29 . 2010-04-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100401052621/http://www.romanialibera.ro/opinii/interviuri/cum-ar-trebui-sa-arate-harta-redesenata-a-romaniei-179771.html . dead .
14. Web site: Prezentarea Judetului Ilfov (Overview of Ilfov County) . National Institute of Statistics (Romania) . ro . 2010-08-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070623142940/http://www.ilfov.insse.ro/phpfiles/PREZENTAREA%20JUDETULUI%20ILFOV.pdf . 2007-06-23 .
15. Web site: Istoria Ilfov (History of Ilfov) . Camera de Comert si Industrie a Judetului Ilfov . ro . 2010-08-23 . 2021-02-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210225052239/http://www.ccilfov.ro/istoria_ilfov.php . dead .
16. Web site: Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics – Introduction . . 2010-08-22 . 2014-01-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140116024028/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/nuts_nomenclature/introduction . live .
17. Web site: CEMR – Members – Romania . Council of European Municipalities and Regions . 2010-08-22 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110716170735/http://www.ccre.org/roumanie_en.htm . 2011-07-16 .
18. Most of the names of the present counties originate from one of the larger rivers that flow through the county. In a number of cases, the name of the county seat or another large city in the county is the same as that river.
19. Web site: Istoria numelor județelor din România. De unde provine denumirea regiunii în care locuiți . ro . 2013-01-30 . 2018-12-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181225132735/https://adevarul.ro/cultura/istorie/istoria-numelor-judetelor-romania-provine-denumirea-regiunii-locuiti-1_50efe43356a0a6567e69a536/index.html . live .
20. These are the codes which coincide with the license plate ones; they are also used as usual abbreviations, such as in mailing addresses.
21. The postal code format is of the type xxyzw, with xx being the numbers associated with the county; the digits y, z, and w indicate the city, the street, part of the street, or even the building of the address.
22. Web site: Postal code search . Compania Nationala Posta Romania SA . ro . 2010-08-22 . 2012-02-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120204061433/http://www.posta-romana.ro/zip_codes . live .
23. Landline phone numbers are of the type +40-abb-xxx-xxx, where 40 is the country code, bb is the area code, and a is a digit indicating the operator: 2 for the former national operator, Romtelecom, and 3 for the other ground telephone networks. Mobile phone numbers, however, only start with the digit 7 (for a) and do not follow county borders.
24. Web site: List of the county prefixes in Romania. ro. National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (Romania). 2005-04-26. 2010-08-22. dead. https://archive.today/20120720054600/http://www.anrcti.ro/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=1501. 2012-07-20.
25. The development region code follows the format ROxyz, where x is the macroregion number, y represents the development region and is either 1 or 2, and z is the county number within the region.
26. Web site: Publications Office, European Union, EU. Simap – Information about European public procurement. 2010-08-29. 2012-02-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20120227015605/http://simap.europa.eu/codes-and-nomenclatures/codes-nuts/codes-nuts-table_en.htm. dead.
27. 
    National Institute of Statistics (Romania) . Primele date provizorii pentru Recensământul Populației și Locuințelor, runda 2021 . PDF . 2023-05-28 . ro . 2022 . 8 . 2024-02-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240228132823/https://www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Date-provizorii-RPL_cu-anexe_30122022.pdf . live .
28. National Institute of Statistics (Romania). Romanian Statistical Yearbook 2017. 2018-06-07. 2018. 17. 2018-06-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20180612142659/http://www.insse.ro/cms/sites/default/files/field/publicatii/anuarul_statistic_al_romaniei_carte_en.pdf. live.
29. Bucharest is not a county, but a municipality that has an identical administrative status to all the other 41 counties.
30. Web site: DEX online – Search: "bucura" . Dexonline.ro . Romanian Etymological Dictionary 1958–1966 . ro . 2010-08-23 . 2018-12-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181225132750/https://dexonline.ro/definitie/bucura/424805%20 . live .
31. Due to Bucharest's significantly larger population, it has a different postal code for each of its six sectors.
32. Bucharest and Ilfov county have the same code. Due to their large population, phone numbers have only the suffix "1" (unlike two-digit suffixes for counties) followed by seven digits (only six digits for anywhere else).
33. Dolj is a shortened form of Dolu (Slavic for "valley") Jiu, in reference to the county's location in the lower part of Jiu river.
34. Gorj is a shortened form of Gora (Slavic for "mountain") Jiu, in reference to the county's location in the upper part of Jiu river.
35. Vâlcea is the Romanian word for a narrow valley.
36. Web site: Județul Vrancea (Vrancea County) . ro . National Institute of Statistics (Romania) . 2010-08-23 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101129230915/http://www.vrancea.insse.ro/main.php?id=404 . 2010-11-29 .
37. Vran is a substratum word believed to mean "forest" or "mountain".

References

External links

• Blog of the Romanian Royalty House showing various maps with the previous administrative divisions of Romania.
• Current and historical divisions of Romania at Statoids.com
• Web site: Geopolitical Entities and Their Codes (FIPS codes). National Institute of Standards and Technology. 2010-08-23. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100822231957/http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/10-3tab1.htm. 2010-08-22.