Giurgiu COUNTY - Geography and history
The Giurgiu county is located in the south of Romania, on the inferior flow of the Danube, crossed by the parallel 43o53' northern latitude and by the meridian 25o59' eastern longitude.
The county's area is 3 526 km2, representing 1.5% of the national area. As of 31 December 2000, the administrative organisation of this county's territory was the following: 2 towns, 1 municipality, 46 communes and 166 villages. The county's capital city is Giurgiu.
The following counties surround Giurgiu county: Dâmbovita, Ilfov (in the north), Calarasi (in the east), Teleorman (in the west). To the south, it is bordered by the Danube river, which forms the natural boundary with Bulgaria.
The county's area includes forests and arable lands, on the territory of the Walachian Plain and of its subdivisions: the Gavanu - Burdea Plain in the north and the Burnaz Plain in the south; the first of them is divided into the Gavanu Plain in north and the Câlnistea Plain in the south.
The valleys of the Danube and Arges rivers play a particular role.
Giurgiu county, as the entire Walachian Plain, is influenced by a continental climate, and by the Danube river's valley on a small area as compared to its territory.
From a hydrographical point of view, the most important waterways are the Danube and Arges rivers, with their influents.
The location on the Danube border along 72 km, gives the county the possibility to have fluvial connections with the vicin countries and with the Black Sea.
In time, this settlement became a city, a customs point, an administrative centre, and a princely residence.
Attested by documents since the 14th century, the city of Giurgiu was the location of some technical premiers: the first railway line in Romania (the Bucharest-Giurgiu railway, officially commissioned in 1869, on 19/31 October), the first telegraph line and the bridge over the Danube.
Famous researchers were born in this area, as follows: the mathematician Miron Nicolescu, the historian of literature Nicolae Cartojan, the writer Tudor Vianu, the poet Vasile Militaru, the painter Nicolae Darascu and others.
Giurgiu is an important customs point for the traffic of passengers and merchandises. The city of is one of the most important Romanian ports on the Danube in the export of cereals, wood, and oil.
In 1996 there was established the Giurgiu Free Zone with an area of 163.54 ha.
The establishment of the Giurgiu Free Zone creates new opportunities for the development of all economic activities.
The facilities given by the Free Zone attract the interest of Romanian and foreign investors, which carry out activities of production, trade and services by the concession or leasing of locations.
In the north of the county oil deposits are exploited, and sands and break stone are extracted from the beds of the Danube and of other rivers that cross the county.
Economy
In 2000, there were 2 780 active companies in the county, more than 98% wih private capital. By their main activity, industry held 8.2%, while services represented 81.8%.
As main industrial products manufactured in the county, there are the products of the food industry, chemical products and the products of the lightindustry.
Agriculture is one of the oldest occupations of the inhabitants of this county, representing almost half of the amount of county's economic activity.
The agricultural land in 2000 was 277 136 ha (1.9% of the country's agricultural land). Of this, 93.6% represented arable land (259 501 ha), 3.2% pastures (8 806 ha), 2.8% vineyards and grape-vine nurseries (7 740 ha), 0.4% orchards and orchard nurseries (1 004 ha). The total area endowed for irrigations in 2000 was 170 106 ha.
The total production obtained in 2000 was 201.9 thousand tons of grain cereals. The total production of corn was 27.4 thousand tons, of which 98.8% was obtained in the private sector, and that of sunflower was 16.7 thousand tons, of which 81.2% in the private sector.
The county's inhabitants practice farming, the most important productions being obtained in households. The livestock at the end of 2000 consisted of 48.9 thousand cattle, 100.4 thousand pigs, 95.6 thousand sheep and goats and 1 923 thousand poultry. The private sector held: 95.3% of the cattle, 98.7% of the pigs, 96.5% of the sheep and goats and 99.3% of the poultry.
At the end of 2000, Giurgiu county had a railway network with a length of 113 km, of which 48 km was electrified.
The length of public roads in 2000 was 1 078 km, of which 267 km were national roads and 811 km were county and communal roads.
As of 31 July 2000, there were 10 structures for tourist accommodation, with a capacity of 865 places, of which 445 places in hotels and motels and 420 accommodation places on boats.
Population and social environment
The county's population was, as of July 2000, 294 thousand persons and represented 1.3% of the population of Romania. Females represented 51.2%. Some 30.8% of the county's population lives in the urban area.
The population density is 83.4 inhabitants/km2, under the national average. At a county level, population up to 15 years represents 18%, from 15 to 60 years, 56.8%, and over 60 years, 25.2%.
The birth rate fell from 10.3 per 1 000 inhabitants in 1996, to 9.8 per 1 000 inhabitants in 2000. The infant mortality fell from 27.4 per 1 000 live births in 1996, to 15.5 per 1 000 live births in 2000.
During the same period the overall mortality rate fell from 17.9 per 1 000 inhabitants to 14.7 per 1 000 inhabitants.
In 2000 the marriage rate was 5.0 per 1 000 inhabitants, compared to 5.3 per 1 000 inhabitants in 1996, and the divorce rate was 0.73 per 1 000 inhabitants, compared to 0.71 per 1 000 inhabitants in 1996.
The life expectancy between 1998 and 2000 was 66.12 years for males and de 73.29 years for females, under the national average for both females and males.
The activity rate of the labour force was 68%. The county's labour force, at the end of 2000, was162.9 thousand persons.
The average net salary of employees in Giurgiu county was 1 929.5 thousand lei in 2000, 9.8% under the national average and 7.1% under the average of the South Region.
The employed civil population represents 62.6% of the labour force. More than half, i.e. 65.3% of the employed civil population works in agriculture, 7.7% in industry, 5.3% in trade, 2.1% in construction, 0.9% in hotels and restaurants, 4.3% in transport, 3% in education, 3.8% in healthcare and 7.6% in other activities. A third of the employed civil population were employees.
The unemployment rate in Giurgiu county was, as of 31 December 2000, 8%, under the national average (10.5%).
The educational activity was carried out in the 2000/2001 school year in 24 kindergartens, 186 primary and secondary schools (of which a special school), 3 high schools, 1 national college, 5 school groups, 1 theological school, 1 vocational school, 1 specialised post-high-school and 1 college of the Academy of Economic Sciences of Bucharest.
The enrolled population at the beginning of the school year was 44 042 persons and included: 6 303 in pre-school education, 31 152 pupils in primary and secondary schools, 4 456 pupils in high schools, 1 623 pupils in vocational and complementary education, 348 pupils in post-high-schools and 160 students in higher institutions. The gross rate of school enrollment was high in the primary and secondary education (96.6%), but low for pre-school education (57.1%).
In 2000, the healthcare network in the public sector included 5 hospitals, 3 health centres, 10 medical consultation centres, 110 private medical cabinets, 1 pharmacy and 7 drugstores. The healthcare personnel of the public sector included 293 doctors, 58 dentists, 929 staff with medium training level and 699 auxiliary personnel.
In the private sector, at the end of 2000 there were 23 medical cabinets, 11 dentist clinics, 1 medical laboratory, 6 laboratories of dentist technique, 24 pharmacies and 6 drugstores, and the medical personnel included 1 doctor, 6 dentists, 40 intermediate healthcare employees and 33 pharmacists.
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