Mures COUNTY - Geography and history
Situated on an area of 6 714 km2, which represents 2.8% of the country's area, the administrative organisation of the county, on 31st of December 2000, was the following: 4 municipalities and 3 towns, 90 communes and 486 de villages. The county's capital city is Târgu Mures.
The Mures County borders: the Bistrita-Nasaud County to the north, the Suceava County to the north-east, the Harghita County to the east , the Brasov County to the south-east, the Sibiu County to the south, the Alba County to the south-east, and the Cluj County to the west.
Placed in the middle of the Carpathian arch, the county has a harmonious geography, having rich and various natural resources.
The geography of the county consists of inter-Carpathians lowland which slightly decreases in altitude, from the volcanic peaks of the Calimani Mountains (2 100 m) and Gurghiu Mountains, towards the middle of the Transylvanian Plain (276 m), crossed by the Mures Valley and divided by the tributaries of the Mures river.
The hills together with the tame inter-rivers at 500-600m altitude belong to the Transylvanian Plateau.
One can distinguish three units: The Transylvania hilly Plain with an altitude of 400-500 m to the north of the Mures River; the Târnave Plateau, extended to the south of Mures (450-700 m); the Transylvanian Sub-Carpathians in the east part of the county (600-1 000 m elevation).
The climate in Mures County is continental-temperate, with differences between the hills and mountains.
The hydrographical network of the county belongs totally to the basin of the Mures river, the main water collector of the entire Transylvanian basin, which crosses the county territory and has a length of 187 km. On the rivers, fishery ponds created (for example across the Mountain Broke river there are Zau de Câmpie Lake - 133 ha, Saulia Lake - 48 ha, Taureni Lake - 53 ha).
The Faragau Lake, is scientifically important for its flora and fauna, and the anthropogenic lakes from Ideciu de Jos, Jabenita and Sângiorgiu de Mures are saline presenting a balneal-climacteric interest. A special importance is presented by the complex of Sovata lakes, with Ursu Lake being considerate the most typically helio-thermal lake in Europe.
In the county's territory the vegetation is various, being multi-storeyed, according to the geography benches and the climatic influences.
The forests and the forestry lands total 205 701 ha (30.6% of the county's total area), from which the waters and ponds occupy 6 215 ha. Main forestry sources are concentrated in the eastern half of the county, in the mountainous zone, the Piedmont hilly zone and in the eastern higher side of the Transylvanian Plateau. Most tipical in the mountain area are fir trees and beech.
The first documented attestation of Târgu Mures dates back to 1332, when it is referred to by the name of Novum Forum Syculorum (the New Szekler Borough). The borough was developed pretty rapidly, becoming in the 15th and 16th centuries the principal urban and trading centre within the superior basin of the Mures. Târgu Mures kept terms with Moldovan rulers (Petru Rares took the city under his protection) and Walachia (Michael the Brave built a church here and the city's population help him in his battles).
The most important resource of this county are the methane gas ores, accidentally found at Sarmasel, in 1907, during the soil log exploitation of some hypothetical salts of Lemery. Among the subsoil resources, after methane gas, as importance, are the utile rocks. Also, salt mineral waters are important.
Economy
In the national economy perspective, the Mures County has a complex production, consisting of important natural resources used in industry as raw material and fuel (gases, useful rocks, forests, etc.), natural conditions for practicing a various agriculture, great number of labour forces, traditions in some economy branches (wood processing industry, leather and footwear industry, chemical industry, furniture, animal breeding, fruit-growing, wine-growing), an important railway and road network as well as a remarkable tourist potential.
In 2000 there were 7 794 active companies, the majority with private capital. In 19.4% of these industrial activity took place, producing 15% of county's turnover.
The prominent component of the county's economy is industry and includes a variety of production branches having international specialisations of national importance: chemical industry, food industry, furniture production, non-ferrous mineral industry, metallic constructions and products industry, electric power and heat, gases and water.
Mures is the only producer of calcium carbide and musical instruments; here can be obtained also ceramic bricks and blocks, furniture, pesticide, timber, beer, butter, milk, sugar.
In 2000 agricultural land was 414 809 ha (that is 61.8% of the total county area). The forests and other forestry vegetation represent 205.7 thousand ha (30.6% of the total area of the county). From the agricultural land, the arable land represents 53.6%, 28.8% natural pastures, 15.4% natural hays, 0.8% the vines and win-growing nurseries, 1.4% orchards and fruit-growing nurseries.
The private sector holds 98.3% of the agricultural land of the county, on the increase comparatively to 1996, when it represented 76.3%.
An important sector of the country is animal breeding, where at the end of 2000 the private sector held 92.2% of cattle, 88.3% of pigs, 99.2% of sheep and goats and 100% of poultry.
The installation of the gas distribution network had an important increase in the last period, the simple length of the pipes at the beginning of 2001 reaching 2 843.7 km, 405.7 km more than in 1996. The number of localities with natural gas distribution is 251, on increase with 29 compared to 1996.
In 2000, the transport infrastructure represented a network of 325 km normal railway tracks (86 km electrified), 153 km less than in 1996, because of the removing of the narrow gauge track. The railway network had a density of 48.4 km per 1 000 km2. The total public roads of 1 845 km consisted of: 357 km national roads and 1 488 km county and communal roads. 94.7% of the national roads were modernised.
About 12 km far from the county capital, in Vidrasau, operates a modern airport.
The county's tourist accommodation capacity as of 31 July 2000 was 6 979 places.
Population and social environment
Having a population of 601 558 inhabitants as of 1 July 2000 and a density of 89.6 inhabitants per km2, Mures County is the 14th in Romania (2.7% of the country population).
At 1st of July 2000, 51.2% of the county's population lived in urban area, while 48.8% in rural area.
The average age of the county's population was 37.4 years in 2000, 0.2 years higher than the average age of the country's population.
The birth rate in 2000 was 11.2 live births per 1 000 inhabitants, increasing compared to 1996 (10.3) over national average.
The overall mortality of 11.4 deaths per 1 000 inhabitants in 2000 determined a natural negative increase of 0.2 persons per 1 000 inhabitants.
The infant mortality was 20.3 deaths of children under 1 year per 1 000 live births, 9.1% higher compared to the national level.
The marriage rate in 2000 was 5.6 marriages per 1 000 inhabitants (6.3 in 1996), and the divorce rate was 1.15 divorces per 1 000 inhabitants (1.34 in 1996).
The life expectancy between 1998 and 2000 was 66.4 years for male and 73.8 years for female, under national average for both male and female.
At the end of 2000, the employed civilian population was 245.7 thousand persons, 6.8% less than 1996. This decrease was mainly due to the industrial activity decrease (the processing industry).
Mures County is on the 12th place in the hierarchy of counties in this respect, with a share of 2.8% in total employed population of the country. Female represent 48% of the total of employed persons, participating actively to the economic and social life of the county.
The average number of employees had fallen compared to 1996 by 21.1% (in industrial activity by 23.7%), and in 2000 the average number of employees was 128.8 thousand persons. At the end of 2000, the number of registered unemployed persons was 18.9 thousand persons, unemployment rate being 7.1% (lower compared to 8.2% at the end of 1996).
In 2000, in Mures County were 899 educational units (940 in 1996), of which 422 in pre-school education, 433 in primary and secondary education, 36 in high-school education, 3 in vocational education, 2 in post-high-school and 3 in university education.
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