Demographic Disfunctionalities in Rural Space. Case study: the Buzău Subcarpathians

Abstract

The Buzău Subcarpathians are an all but completely rural region, currently facing manifoldproblems, which have led to the onset of a process of gradual deterioration. The purpose of this articleis to assess the demographic dysfunctionalities that have emerged and intensified as a result of themultiple transformations undergone by the Romanian rural space in the past half-century. In order toanalyze the demographic characteristics, 7 indicators were calculated (the rate of natural increase, thenet migration rate, the intensity of depopulation, the ratio of the elderly population of the totalpopulation, the population aging index, the demographic potential index, the total age dependencyratio) for each of the region’s 58 administrative-territorial entities. Later on, starting from thestandardized values of the 7 variables, a global indicator was calculated (generically calleddemographic index), which allows the classification of settlements into a hierarchy in terms of thedemographic factor. The analysis of the demographic index reveals that the administrative-territorialentities with the highest values are, in particular, those located within the area of influence of the citiesof Buzău and Ploiești, which feature a good access infrastructure. On the opposite side, there arecommunes located, typically, in the North-Eastern and South-Western regions, characterized by a highvolume of definitive migration (especially in the young and adult age groups) which resulted, in themedium and long run, among others, in the decline of birth rates and the onset of a pronouncedprocess of population aging. In a situation where the current conditions persist, some of the villages inthe analyzed area will disappear.