Centre for Research on Settlements and Urbanism Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning J o u r n a l h o m e p a g e: http://jssp.reviste.ubbcluj.ro Demographic Changes in the Pădurenilor Region Between 1850 and 2011 Gabriel-Cristian DOBREI1, Ciprian-Petrică BODEA2 1 Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA 2 Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA E-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] K e y w o r d s: Pădurenilor Region, census, depopulation, abandonment A B S T R A C T The goal of this paper is to identify how Romania’s demographic evolution in the last 162 years affected the Pădurenilor Region. The Pădurenilor Region represents one of the richest ethnographic regions of Romania due to its relative isolation which helped maintain traditional speech, clothes, traditions and architecture unchanged for hundreds of years. The demographic evolution of Pădurenilor Region is emphasized by the 10 censuses organized between 1850 and 2011. The 1850, 1880 and 1910 censuses were organized by the Kingdom of Hungary and the ones from 1956, 1966, 1977, 1992, 2002 and 2011 were organized by Romania. The overall result of the study showed a mixed dynamic of the Pădurenilor Region, the growth from 1850 to 1966 followed by a rapid decrease in population from 1966 to 2002. 1. INTRODUCTION from the 2012 Romanian Census indicate a total of 4807 inhabitants [6]). The Pădurenilor Region is located in In total the seven rural areas of the Hunedoara County along the upper sector of the river Pădurenilor Region occupy 564.4 square kilometres, the Cerna, bounded to the north by the Mureş Valley, to the majority of which is covered by forest.