village to city, but since 1996, the trend was reversed, and after 2005 was even stronger. Between 2005 and 2008, the number of people who have changed residence from rural to urban was 294,000, while the number of people who have changed residence from urban to rural was 418,000, difference being of over 120,000 people. Between 1996 and 2008, the difference was 313,000. According to statistics compiled in 2004, 11,895,600 citizens (54.88%) lived in the urban environment, and 9,777,728 citizens (45.12%) lived in the rural environment. The most urbanized counties are Hunedoara County (76.87%), Brașov County (74.91%) and Constanța County (71.12%), while the most sparsely urbanized counties are Ilfov County (26.09%), Dâmbovița County (30.06%) and Giurgiu County (30.95%).
Bucharest is the capital and the largest city in Romania. At the census in 2011, its population was over 1.6 million. The LUZ area of Bucharest has a population of 2,192,372 inhabitants. As of 2011, there are plans to establish a metropolitan area up to 20 times the area of the city proper.
Romania has four other cities that are among the European Union's 100 most populous: Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași and Constanța. Other cities with populations over 200,000 are Craiova, Galați and Brașov. Another 11 cities have a population of over 100,000.
At present, several of the largest cities have a metropolitan area: Constanța (446,595 inhab.), Iași (402,786 inhab.), Brașov (402,041 inhab.), Cluj-Napoca (392,562 inhab.), Craiova (333,834 inhab.) and Oradea (249,746 inhab.), and several others are planned: Bucharest, Timișoara, Brăila-Galați, Bacău and
