Bistrița-Năsăud County


Bistrița-Năsăud is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Bistrița.

Name

In Hungarian, it is known as Beszterce-Naszód megye, and in German as Kreis Bistritz-Nassod. The name is identical with the county created in 1876, Beszterce-Naszód County in the Kingdom of Hungary. Except these, as part of Romania, until 1925 the former administrative organizations were kept when a new county system was introduced. Between 1925–1940 and 1945–1950, most of its territory belonged to the Năsăud County, with smaller parts belonging to the Mureș, Cluj, and Someș counties.

Demographics

In 31 October 2011, it had a population of 277,861 and the population density was 51/km².
83.1% of inhabitants were Romanian Orthodox, 6.3% Pentecostal, 4.6% Reformed, 2.3% Greek-Catholic, 1.2% Roman Catholic, 0.8% Baptist, 0.7% belonged to "another religion", 0.5% Seventh-day Adventist and 0.5% other or none.
YearCounty population
1948233,650
1956255,789
1966269,954
1977286,628
1992327,238
2002311,657
2011277,861

Geography

The county has a total area of 5,355 km². One third of this surface represents the mountains from the Eastern Carpathians group: the Țibleș, Rodna, Bârgău and Călimani Mountains. The rest of the surface represents the North-East side of the Transylvanian Plateau.
The main river crossing the county is the Someșul Mare. On the Bistrița River there is a big dam and a lake.

Neighbours

The Bistrița-Năsăud County Council, elected at the 2016 local government elections, is made up of 31 counselors, with the following party composition:

Administrative divisions

Bistriţa-Năsăud County has 1 municipality, 3 towns and 58 communes.
Natives of the county include: