TeleoRman County - Geography and history
Teleorman county is located in the southern part of the country, in the middle of the Walachian Plain. Teleorman is one of the medium counties, having an area of 5 790 km2 which represents 2.4% of the country's area (19th position). As of 31 December 2000, the Teleorman county's territory had 3 municipalities, 2 towns and 83 communes and 231 villages. In the south it is neighboured by the Danube river - the natural border between Romania and Bulgaria - then by Olt county in the west, Arges and Dâmbovita counties in the north, and Giurgiu county in the east. The county's capital city is Alexandria.
Characterised by the plain geography, the county's territory - monotonous at first sight - includes a large area of the Walachian Plain (the western sector of the Burnas Plain and the southern sector of the Gavanu - Burdea Plain), and the Danube meadow of this sector.
The county's territory combines the excellent pedoclimatic geographic conditions for agriculture with irrigation. The agro-climatic resources are very favourable to the following crops: corn, wheat, sunflower, lucerne, tobacco and less favourable to potatoes, bean, hemp, linen and other plants sensitive to dryness and draught.
The climate is temperate-continental, specific to the moderate climate of the southern plain and is characterised by high caloric potential, large amplitudes of air temperatures, low rainfalls usually during the summer, and frequent periods of drought.
The Danube river waters the county's territory at the southern limit on a length of 119 km. The Olt river runs the county for 20 km, the Vedea for 120 km, the Teleorman for 89 km, and the Calmatui for 112 km . The existence of two ports on the Danube: Turnu Magurele and Zimnicea offers great opportunities to develop the fluvial transport and to establish industrial objectives.
The first attestation in documents to the name of Teleorman is on 14 May 1441 in a document named "The Charter of the Prince Vlad the Devil", the leader of Walachia.
The name of the Teleorman county is supposedly derived from the river with the same name and from "The great Cuman forest of Teleorman" which covered almost entirely the present territory of the county. The toponym of "Teleorman" derives from Dele-orman, "deep forest", and is considered to date since the Cumans period, meaning large and deep forest, as "crazy forest" was used in ancient Turkish with the same signification. As result of the studies conducted on the reconstitution of this forest area in different periods, the existence of a long and well organised economic life on this territory was proven.
During this time, Teleorman county was characterised by a relative stability of its administrative border. As an administrative unit, Teleorman county is included in the old traditional districts of Walachia.
The north-east of the county is rich in oil and natural gas resources. The main oil fields are located at - Blejesti, Silistea, Trivalea-Mosteni, Ciolanesti, Poeni, Talpa, and Videle.
Being a plain county with a large area of arable land, the county's soil has a high degree of fertility: chernozem, brown-red forest soil and brown forest soil, which allows very attractive investments.
Natural lakes are another richness (the Suhaia, Baldoisti, and Belciug lakes) as well as those artificially endowed for fishing.
Economy
Taking into account the geographical position, agriculture helps the county to be among the first with respect to the agricultural land and potential vegetal and animal productions. The agricultural production obtained in 2000 represented 15% of the production of the South Region.
The cereal crop production obtained was 475.2 thousand tons (83.3% from the private sector), of which wheat and rye 365.3 thousand tons, grain corn 42.8 thousand tons; the production of sunflower was 36.1 thousand tons. To note that in 2000, Teleorman county obtained an average production per ha for wheat and rye superior to the national average (2 386 kg per ha, compared to 2 280 kg per ha, the national average) and for barley and two-row barley (3 229 kg per ha, compared to 2 105 kg per ha, the national average).
The trend of the animal breeding closely followed the changes in the cattle structure, correlated with different trends of economic performance. At the end of 2000, the number livestock was as follows: 59.8 thousand cattle, 145.4 thousand pigs, 185.9 thousand sheep and goats and 3 138 thousand poultry.
At the end of 2000, in the agriculture industry of Teleorman county there were 6 892 tractors, 5 569 ploughs for tractors, 1 506 seeding machines with mechanical traction for cereals, 1 693 self-propulsion combines for cereals, 448 combinators etc. At the end of 2000, the arable land per tractor was 66 ha.
In 2000 there were 4 203 active companies in the county, more than 98% with private capital. By their main activity, industry was 7.7%, while services represented 83%.
The most representative products of the county are: oil and natural gas, steel pipes, chemical fertilisers, edible oils, bearings, mixed forages, electrical engines of 0.25 kW and over.
Transport represents the main component of the service sector market with an essential role as a main infrastructure for the other economic activities. At the end of 2000, there were railway lines in length of 322 km on the county's territory; the county is crossed by the Bucharest-Craiova line through a railway node (Rosiori de Vede) on a distance of 92 km. The ground transport of the county was carried out in 2000 on 1 518 km of public roads, of which 497 km were modernised roads.
The Danube river is fully navigable (119 km). Some investments are still needed to arrange the waterbed and to modernise the ports of Turnu Magurele and Zimnicea.
As of 31 July 2000, there were 11 structures for tourist accommodation in the county was, of which 4 were hotels, and the total accommodation capacity was 1 037 places, of which 577 were places in hotels.
Population and social environment
As of 1 July 2000, the Teleorman county's population was 456 831 inhabitants, with an average density of 78.9 inhabitants/km2. Of these, 156 941 inhabitants (34.4%) lived in the urban area. Of the total population, males represented 49.2% and females 50.8%.
The young population (0-24 years) accounted for 29.9% at 1 July 2000, which is under the national average and under the 1996 figure (31.4%). The population of 65 years and above represented 19.2% of the county's population, compared to 13.3% at national level; compared to 1996 (17.9%), we note an aging process of the population.
The average age of the population was 41.1 years, 3.9 years higher than the national average.
The birth rate in 2000 was 8.9 per 1 000 inhabitants, lower than in 1996 (9.0) and under the national average.
The overall mortality rate was 15.5 per 1 000 inhabitants, above the national average (11.4), and the infant mortality rate was 17.2 deaths of children under 1 year per 1 000 live births, under the national average.
The marriage rate in 2000 was 4.8 per 1 000 inhabitants, and the divorce rate was 1.07 per 1 000 inhabitants.
The life expectancy between 1998 and 2000 was 66.9 years for males and 74.0 years for females, under the national average, for both males and females.
At the beginning of 2001 the activity rate of the labour force was 83.7%.
Of the total employed civil population of 192.5 thousand persons, females held 48%, and as for the distribution by fields of activity 64.8% worked in agriculture.
The employees represented 33.7% of the total employed civil population. The average monthly net salary in 2000 (2 018.3 thousand lei), was 5.6% lower than the national average and 2.8% under the South Region's average.
The number of the registered unemployed at the end of 2000 was 19 thousand persons, and the unemployment rate was 9%. The females share in the total unemployed persons was 44.7%.
The population enrolled in the schools of Teleorman county has an oscillatingr evolution, determined both by demographic changes and policy in the educational field, with a share in the total population at a relatively constant level during the last 2 years (15%).
The population enrolled in schools at the beginning of the 2000/2001 school year was 71 271 persons (683 persons less compared to the previous year), representing 15.6% of the county's population. Thus, there were 156 pupils per 1 000 inhabitants.
The health services are provided by 9 hospitals, 13 medical consultation centres (8 in the urban localities and 5 in the rural localities) and 101 pharmacies (most of them with private capital). At a county level the capacity of healthcare units is 2 961 hospital beds.
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