City of Bucharest
City of Bucharest Intercultural Profile 1. Background1 Bucharest is the capital and largest city, as well as the cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. According to the 2011 census, 1,883,425 inhabitants live within the city limits, a decrease from the 2002 census. Taking account of the satellite towns around the urban area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.27 million people. However, according to unofficial data given by Wikipedia, the population is more than 3 million (raising a point that will be reiterated throughout this report that statistics are not universally reliable in Romania).Notwithstanding, Bucharest is the 6th largest city in the European Union by population within city limits, after London, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, and Paris. Bucharest accounts for around 23% of the country’s GDP and about one-quarter of its industrial production, while being inhabited by only 10% of the country’s population. In 2010, at purchasing power parity, Bucharest had a per-capita GDP of EUR 14,300, or 45% that of the European Union average and more than twice the Romanian average. Bucharest’s economy is mainly focused on industry and services, with a significant IT services sector. It houses 186,000 companies, and numerous companies have set up headquarters in Bucharest, attracted by the highly skilled labour force and low operating costs. The list includes multinationals such as Microsoft, IBM, P&G, HP, Oracle, Wipro, and S&T. In terms of higher education, Bucharest is the largest Romanian academic centre and one of the most important locales in Eastern Europe, with 16 public and 18 private institutes and over 300,00 students.
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