Development regions of Romania

The development regions of Romania (Romanian: Regiunile de dezvoltare ale României) refer to the eight regional divisions created in Romania in 1998 in order to better co-ordinate regional development as Romania progressed towards accession to the European Union (EU). The development regions correspond to NUTS 2-level divisions in EU member states. Despite becoming increasingly significant in regional development projects, Romania's development regions do not actually have an administrative status and do not have a legislative or executive council or government. Rather, they serve a function for allocating EU PHARE funds for regional development, as well as for collection of regional statistics. They also co-ordinate a range of regional development projects and became members of the Committee of the Regions when Romania joined the EU on January 1, 2007.

Map of the development regions (NUTS-2 level divisions)

Map of the macroregions (NUTS-1 level divisions)

List

There are eight development regions in Romania, which (with the exception of București-Ilfov) are named by their geographical position in the country:

• RO1 – Macroregiunea Unu:
  • Nord-Vest – RO11; 6 counties; 2,521,793 inhabitants; 34,159 km² (13,189 sq mi)
  • Centru – RO12; 6 counties; 2,271,066 inhabitants; 34,082 km² (13,159 sq mi)
• RO2 – Macroregiunea Doi:
  • Nord-Est – RO21; 6 counties; 3,226,436 inhabitants; 36,850 km² (14,230 sq mi)
  • Sud-Est – RO22; 6 counties; 2,367,987 inhabitants; 35,762 km² (13,808 sq mi)
• RO3 – Macroregiunea Trei:
  • Sud - Muntenia – RO31; 7 counties; 2,864,337 inhabitants; 34,489 km² (13,316 sq mi)
  • București - Ilfov – RO32; 1 county and Bucharest; 2,259,669 inhabitants; 1,811 km² (699 sq mi)
• RO4 – Macroregiunea Patru:
  • Sud-Vest Oltenia – RO41; 5 counties; 1,873,606 inhabitants; 29,212 km² (11,279 sq mi)
  • Vest – RO42; 4 counties; 1,668,921 inhabitants; 32,028 km² (12,366 sq mi)

No	Name	Code	Area, km2	Population	Municipalities	Other cities	Communes	Villages
1	Nord-Est	RO21	36,850	3,226,436	17	29	506	2,414
2	Sud-Est	RO22	35,762	2,367,987	11	24	355	1,448
3	Sud - Muntenia	RO31	34,453	2,864,337	16	32	519	2,019
4	Sud-Vest Oltenia	RO41	29,212	1,873,606	11	29	408	2,070
5	Vest	RO42	32,034	1,688,921	12	30	281	1,327
6	Nord-Vest	RO11	34,159	2,521,793	15	28	403	1,800
7	Centru	RO12	34,100	2,271,066	20	37	357	1,788
8	București - Ilfov	RO32	1,821	2,259,669	1	8	32	91
Total			238,391	19,053,815	103	217	2,861	12,957

Economy

Gross domestic product (GDP) as reported by Eurostat

	2006					2016[1]					2020	2023
Region (NUTS-3)	Total (million €) [2]	€ per capita [3]	PPP (million €) [4]	PPP € per capita [5]	% of EU average GDP (PPP) [6]	Total (million €)	€ per capita	PPP (million €) in 2014[7]	PPP € per capita	% of EU average GDP (PPP)	% of EU average GDP per capita[8]	% of EU average GDP (PPP)[9]
Romania	98,419	4,500	196,999	9,200	38	169,771	8,600	301,801	17,000	58	72	78
Nord-Vest	11,675	4,200	23,370	8,700	36	19,519	7,600	34,001	14,300	51	67	71
Centru	11,335	4,500	22,689	9,100	37	18,761	8,000	33,349	15,800	54	67	70
Nord-Est	10,787	2,900	21,591	5,900	24	17,081	5,300	30,912	10,400	36	46	47
Sud-Est	11,051	3,800	22,119	7,900	32	18,159	7,400	34,020	14,600	52	58	61
Sud - Muntenia	12,482	3,800	24,985	7,700	31	20,583	6,800	36,630	14,200	46	55	60
București - Ilfov	22,946	9,900	45,931	21,100	86	46 994	20,500	81,267	40,400	139	164	190
Sud-Vest Oltenia	8,138	3,600	16,290	7,200	29	12,451	6,300	22,677	12,400	42	56	62
Vest	9,940	5,300	19,897	10,500	43	16 081	8,900	28,698	17,600	60	74	78

HDI index

Map of Romanian regions by HDI in 2021.
Legend:

  ≥ 0.900

  0.820 – 0.900

  0.800 – 0.819

  0.750 - 0.799

List of NUTS2 statistical regions of Romania by Human Development Index as of 2022^[10]

Rank	Region	HDI (2022)
Very high human development
1	București - Ilfov	0.926
2	Nord-Vest	0.831
	Vest
-	Romania (average)	0.827
4	Centru	0.823
5	Sud-Vest	0.806
High human development
6	Sud-Est	0.796
7	Sud	0.785
	Nord-Est

See also

• Administrative divisions of Romania
• Region (Europe)
• Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics
• Historical regions of Romania