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Marginal Areas of the Romanian Banat. Banat region is historically located between the rivers Danube, Tisa and Mureș, on three sides, and the Carpathians. This analysis focuses only on the Romanian Banat. After the December 1989 Revolution which started in Timișoara, the regional capital of Banat, the transition to the market economy and the recent economic crisis has severely struck the pillars of local economy in many parts of the region: agriculture and mining. According to a number of wellknown criteria, the paper identifies and analyzes the marginal areas of the region: rural isolated areas such as Lipova Hills and Almăj Land, mining and industrial regions like Reșița-Bocșa-Anina, Poiana Ruscă Mountains and Bistra Valley. The rural areas lack accessibility and have an autarchic economy based on agriculture. The former industrial regions are characterised by high rates of unemployment and a decline in the living standards. The consequences are mainly the same: emigration, low birth rates, demographic ageing, socio-economic instability.

Analzyed mainly from a natural perspective, the tourism potential of the area shows important characteristics providing favourable premises for tourism planning and development. The morphological, climatic bioclimatic, hydrological and biogeographical features of Iara-Hăşdate Basin are investigated in order to create a detailed inventory of the natural resources with a specific tourism potential and to identify different types and forms of tourism which can be developed.

The National Structure of the Romanian Population at the 20th of October 2011 Census. This is the third study regarding the national structure of the population of Romania. The first two approached the 1992 and 2002 censuses and were published in Studia UBB, Geographia, 2 (1991) and the Romanian Review of Political Geography (2004)2. On the census day, Romania had 20,121,641 inhabitants, of which 83.45% (16,792,868) are Romanians, while the other 16.55% belong to: Hungarians 6.10% (1,227,623 inhabitants), Gypsies 3.09% (621,573 people), other 18 national minorities (Ukrainians, Germans, Turks, Russian-Lipovans, Tartars, Serbs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Greek, Italians, Jews, Czechs, Poles, Chinese, Armenians, Csangos, Macedonians) and the category “other national groups” have together only 1.21% (242,767 inhabitants). There is also a category of people for which the information was ”unavailable”, totaling 6.15% (1,236,810 people) of the Romanian population (fig. 1). As requested to assess the essential issues of such a subject, one needs to analyze the distribution of the national minorities across Romania, at the level of the counties and the eight geographical-historical provinces of Romania: Transylvania, Moldavia, Dobrudja, Muntenia, Oltenia, Banat, Crişana and Maramureş. Generally, regarding the presence of the Romanian population, one notices the following situation at the level of the counties: in 18 counties of the total of 41 in Romania, the weight of the Romanian population is over 90%, including all the eight Moldavian counties (Bacău, Botoşani, Galaţi, Iaşi, Neamţ, Suceava, Vaslui, Vrancea), six out of the ten counties of Muntenia (Argeş, Brăila, Buzău, Dâmboviţa, Prahova, Teleorman) and four out of five counties of Oltenia (Dolj, Gorj, Olt, Vâlcea). The highest weight of Romanians is recorded in the counties of Gorj (94.17%) and Botoşani (94.08%). A weight between 80 and 90% was recorded in five out of the ten counties of Transylvania (Alba, Bistriţa-Năsăud, Braşov, Hunedoara, Sibiu), in both counties of Dobrudja (Constanţa, Tulcea), in four out of ten counties of Muntenia (Călăraşi, Giurgiu, Ialomiţa, Ilfov), one in Oltenia (Mehedinţi), two in Banat (Caraş-Severin, Timiş), and in the city of Bucharest. The other nine counties have a weight of 70-80% of Romanian population (Cluj, Arad, Maramureş), 60-70% (Sălaj, Bihor, Maramureş) and under 60% (Covasna 21.41%, Harghita 12.61%, Mureş 50.35%). The Hungarian national group has a weight of 6.10 % at national level and is present most of all in Transylvania, where it represents 21.56% of the population of this province (858,454 locuitori). The highest weight has been registered in the counties of Harghita (82.90%), Covasna (71.53%), Mureş (36.46%), Sălaj (22.36%) and Cluj (14.99%). Values above 15% have been also recoreded in the counties of Satu Mare (32.69%) and Bihor (24.02%). Compared to the situation of the counties in the center and western Romania, in the East, South-East and South the Hungarians are almost completely absent, as their weight is largely below 1%. The Gypsy population represents 3.09% (621,573 people) of the Romanian population and is present in all the 42 administrative units. One remarks a rather homogeneous distribution of the Gypsies, as their weight is higher than 5% in only a number of counties: Mureş (8.52%), Sălaj (6.69%), Dâmboviţa (5.27%), Giurgiu (5.41%), Ialomiţa (5.21%), Bihor (6.02%) and Satu Mare (5.05%). In all other counties, as well as at the level of provinces, the Gypsies have weights below 5%. All the other national minorities have together a weight of only 1.21% (242,767 people) of the Romanian population.They have weights between 1% and 7% in only ten of the Romanian counties: Sibiu, Suceava, Constanţa, Tulcea, Arad, Caraş-Severin, Timiş, Bihor, Satu Mare and Maramureş, and in four provinces out of eight. The analyzed census presents a peculiarity which did not exist before, the column entitled “Unavailable information”. For 6.15% of the Romanian population (1,236,819 people) the information regarding ethnicity was unavailable. At the level of the counties, in 14 cases this group represented less than 5%, in all other counties it represented between 5% and 10% while in the city of Bucharest the information was unavailable for 11.68% of the population.

Marginal Areas of the Romanian Banat. Banat region is historically located between the rivers Danube, Tisa and Mureș, on three sides, and the Carpathians. This analysis focuses only on the Romanian Banat. After the December 1989 Revolution which started in Timișoara, the regional capital of Banat, the transition to the market economy and the recent economic crisis has severely struck the pillars of local economy in many parts of the region: agriculture and mining. According to a number of well-known criteria, the paper identifies and analyzes the marginal areas of the region: rural isolated areas such as Lipova Hills and Almăj Land, mining and industrial regions like Reșița-Bocșa-Anina, Poiana Ruscă Mountains and Bistra Valley. The rural areas lack accessibility and have an autarchic economy based on agriculture. The former industrial regions are characterised by high rates of unemployment and a decline in the living standards. The consequences are mainly the same: emigration, low birth rates, demographic ageing, socio-economic instability.

Marginal Areas of the Romanian Banat. Banat region is historically located between the rivers Danube, Tisa and Mureș, on three sides, and the Carpathians. This analysis focuses only on the Romanian Banat. After the December 1989 Revolution which started in Timișoara, the regional capital of Banat, the transition to the market economy and the recent economic crisis has severely struck the pillars of local economy in many parts of the region: agriculture and mining. According to a number of well-known criteria, the paper identifies and analyzes the marginal areas of the region: rural isolated areas such as Lipova Hills and Almăj Land, mining and industrial regions like Reșița-Bocșa-Anina, Poiana Ruscă Mountains and Bistra Valley. The rural areas lack accessibility and have an autarchic economy based on agriculture. The former industrial regions are characterised by high rates of unemployment and a decline in the living standards. The consequences are mainly the same: emigration, low birth rates, demographic ageing, socio-economic instability.