Abstract:
Considered both an action and a consume factor, the population bares an important role in the diagnosis analysis of the
rural space, mostly because the demographical compound appears as a development potential. Considering the fact that,
at the moment, the demographical compound does not offer great hopes for the development of the rural space, the
present paper, based on a simple analysis of the Romanian rural space, from a demographical point of view, and by
using a variety of demographical indicators, portrays the current situation of the demographical compound of the
Romanian rural space. In the beginning of the year 1990, Romania’s rural population consisted of 10.6 million souls, a
number that has known a severe decrease in the last 20 years. The most recent statistical data shows that the number of
inhabitants in rural areas has reached 9.64 million on the first of January, 2010. The paper also identifies the main
causes that generated this negative state, like the negative rate of natural increase, the work force’s migration abroad
and the aging of the population. The population’s aging reflects the alterations, in time, of the ratio between the young
and the aged population, in the sense of a weight factor growth of the latter, from the population’s total. The
phenomenon is explained though the evolution of the basic population indicators, which determine alterations in the
population’s structure, according to age and the territorial movement (migrations). The situation recorded in the present,
in the rural space as well as at the level of the entire country, should consist a warning signal for authorities, which
should draw their attention towards finding economical solutions that will encourage the growth of the birth rate and
slow down, or even stop, the external migration.
