A commune (''comună'' in
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
) is the lowest level of
administrative subdivision
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
. There are 2,686 communes in Romania. The commune is the rural subdivision of a
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
.
Urban area
An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...
s, such as towns and cities within a county, are given the status of ''
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
'' or ''
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
''.
In principle, a commune can contain any size population, but in practice, when a commune becomes relatively urbanised and exceeds approximately 10,000 residents, it is usually granted city status. Although cities are on the same administrative level as communes, their local governments are structured in a way that gives them more power. Some urban or semi-urban areas of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants have also been given city status.
Each commune is administered by a mayor (''primar'' in Romanian). A commune is made up of one or more villages which do not themselves have an administrative function. Communes, like cities, correspond to the
European Union's level 2
local administrative unit
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS (french: Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques) is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, ...
(LAU).
Florești, in
Cluj County
Cluj County (; german: Kreis Klausenburg, hu, Kolozs megye) is a county (județ) of Romania, in Transylvania. Its seat ( ro, Oraș reședință de județ) is Cluj-Napoca (german: Klausenburg).
Name
In Hungarian, it is known as ''Kolozs megye ...
, is the largest commune in Romania by population, with over 22,000 inhabitants.
Bistra, in
Alba County, is the largest commune in Romania by surface area, covering an area of . Other sources list
Nucșoara
Nucșoara is a Commune in Romania, commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Gruiu, Nucșoara, Sboghițești and Slatina.
The commune is located in the northern part of the county, on the border with Brașov Co ...
, in
Argeș County as the largest commune in Romania; this commune covers an area of .
See also
*
Cities of Romania
This is a list of cities and towns in Romania, ordered by population (largest to smallest) according to the 2002 and 2011 censuses. For the major cities, average elevation is also given. Cities in bold are county capitals. The list includes ...
*
Municipalities of Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
*
Counties of Romania
References
{{Articles on second-level administrative divisions of European countries
Subdivisions of Romania
Romania 2
Communes, Romania