Changes in the Urban System of Romania, and Their Possible Effect on the Future Administrative Reform of the Country

The modern Romanian urban system appeared in the nineteenth century, and partly in the first half of the twentieth. The most important cities became significant in these periods, but the modern and effective city system was created in many steps mostly in the communist era. Cities with a regional importance were the first to appear, after that came cities with a sub-regional or county-level, and after 1968 the system of towns with a sub-county level was formed. After 1990 the urban system was made up of the following categories: regional cities with a population above 300.000 people, big cities with a population of 100.000–300.000, medium-level cities with a population of 50,000–100,000, big towns (25,000–50,000) and small towns (under 25,000). In the administrative system we can group them in two different ways: they can be county towns (generally the regional, big and partly the medium cities) or not; and they can be towns of county rank (Rom. municipiu—generally all the cities and the big towns) or simple towns (generally small towns). The Territorial Planning Act of 2001 led to a significant change in the settlement network. Now we have well-defined criteria to change the administrative category of a settlement by local initiatives. Thus, after 2001 the number of the towns increased. The number of regional cities increased too, thus it is necessary to create new regions, and this need supports the process of the administrative-territorial reform.