DEMOGRAPHIC RISKS IN MOŢILOR LAND

Abstract

The scientific study at hand takes a look at the changes in demography over the last 30 years in the ethnographic region of “Moţilor Land” trying to establish if a balance has been reached. There are several important demographic risks that affect this region. First, there is the rapid depopulation of the area that was triggered by three factors: by the isolation of the people in the “Moţilor Land” which was amplified during the 1990s after the destruction of the railway that connected Câmpeni with the periphery of the mountain zone, by the economic crisis experienced by the region due to the collapse of the mining activities and not the least by the lack in many localities of minimal utilities like schools, commercial units, electricity, telephone lines, fact due especially to the numerous settlements per commune and to the difficult mountainous terrain. Other important risk factors are the demographic aging and the feminization of the population. These are the result of the continuous reduction of birth rate over a long period of time and of the previous migrations, especially after the 1966 when numerous people, especially young males, left the mountain villages for the cities where jobs became available due to the intense industrial development during the 1970s and 1980s in Romania.