摘要：The paper aims at highlighting the changes that occurred in the social-economic structure of the
urban population within Oltenia from 1977 to 2002, a period with two stages: first, a massive industrialization
process, followed in the 90¡¯s by a transition period with many problems and transformations. Due to
demographic (age structure in particular) and economic changes (from no official unemployment phenomenon
in 1977 to a high unemployment ratio in 2002), there were significant increases in the economic dependency
ratios. One of the most significant transformations is represented by the ever increasing importance of the
ternary activities, as well as the percentage of the private sector. However, the increase in the number of active
people involved in agricultural activities in many small towns should not be neglected.
