rabia and the northern portion of Bukovina.
In 1971 none of Romania's borders were disputed, and all of them were
satisfactorily demarcated.

The total circumference of the country is about 1,975 miles. The
northern and eastern border with the Soviet Union extends for about 830
miles; the southern border with Bulgaria, for 375 miles; the
southwestern border with Yugoslavia, for 345 miles; and the
northwestern border with Hungary, for 275 miles. The Black Sea coast is
about 150 miles long. The eastern boundary generally follows the Prut
River, and most of the southern boundary is formed by the Danube; in the
west and north the border follows no distinctive terrain features, often
having been drawn according to ethnic, rather than geographic,
considerations.

Political Subdivisions

Until 1968 the communist regime had divided the country into seventeen
regions--including one consisting of the Bucharest metropolitan area
only--and 152 districts. In an extensive reorganization of local
governments at that time, the regions were done away with and replaced
by the prewar system of counties (_judete_). In 1971 there were
thirty-nine counties, plus Bucharest and its suburban areas, which were
still administered separately. Bucharest was one of forty-six
municipalities, but it was the only one not subordinate to the district
in which it was located. Each county is named for the town that is its
administrative center. The newer organization has served to increase
public participation in local government but has also increased the
authority of the central government.

Bucharest, with a population of nearly 1.5 million in 1969, was about
six times larger than Brasov, the next largest city. The Bucharest
district was smallest in area and greatest in population. Other
districts had roughly similar areas and populations. They averaged about
2,350 square miles in area and, although their populations varied
between fewer than 200,000 and about 750,000, two-thirds of them had
between 350,000 and 650,000 persons.

The 1968 reorganization also made extensive changes in the lower portion
of the local administrative structure, reducing the number of communes
by about 40 percent and villages by nearly 15 percent. Typical counties
had about fifty communes of about 4,000 to 5,000 persons each. The
smaller local units were created, dissolved, or combined as population
and local requirements changed but, as of January 1970, there were 236