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Bihor County Județul Bihor
County
Oradea, capital of Bihor County
Coat of arms
Location of Bihor County in Romania
Country	Romania
Historic region	Crișana
Capital city (Reședință de județ)	Oradea
Government
• Type	County Board
• President of the County Board	Sándor Pásztor (UDMR)
• Prefect	Ioan MIhaiu
Area
• Total	7,544 km (2,913 sq mi)
• Rank	6th in Romania
Highest elevation	1,849 m (6,066 ft)
Lowest elevation	89 m (292 ft)
Population
• Total	575,398
• Rank	11th in Romania
• Density	76/km (200/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal Code	41wxyz
Area code	+40 x59
ISO 3166 code	RO-BH
Car Plates	BH
GDP	US$4.048 billion (2015)
GDP/capita	US$7,037 (2015)
Website	County Board County Prefecture
The developing regions of Romania have no administrative role. They were formed to attract funds from the European Union as of 2007, the Prefect is not a politician, but a civil servant. He (or she) is not allowed to be a member of a political party, and is banned from any political activity in the first six months after the resignation (or firing) from the civil service w, x, y, and z are digits that indicate the city, the street, part of the street, or even the building of the address x is a digit indicating the operator: 2 for the former national operator, Romtelecom, and 3 for the other ground telephone networks used on both the plates of the vehicles that operate only in the county limits (like utility vehicles, ATVs, etc.), and the ones used outside the county

Bihor County (Romanian pronunciation: [biˈhor] ) is a county (județ) of Romania, in Crișana. Its capital city is Oradea.

Toponymy

The origin of the name Bihor is uncertain, except that it likely takes its name from an ancient fortress in the current commune of Biharia. It possibly came from vihor, the Serbian and Ukrainian word for "whirlwind" (вихор), or Slavic biela hora, meaning "white mountain". Another theory is that Biharea is of Daco-Thracian etymology (bi meaning "two" and harati "take" or "lead"), possibly meaning two possessions of land in the Duchy of Menumorut. Another theory is that the name comes from bour, the Romanian term for aurochs (from the Latin word bubalus). The animal once inhabited the lands of northwestern Romania. Under this controversial theory, the name changed from buar to buhar and to Bihar and Bihor.

Demographics

In 2002, Bihor had a population of 600,246 and the population density was 79.56/km. 48.6% of its population lives in urban areas, lower than the Romanian average.

• Romanians - 67.38%
• Hungarians - 25.96%
• Roma - 5.01%
• Slovaks - 1.22%
• Germans (Sathmar Swabians) - 0.19%

On 31 October 2011, Bihor had a population of 575,398 and the population density was 72/km (186/sq mi).

• Romanians – 66.96%
• Hungarians – 25.27%
• Roma – 6.33%
• Slovaks – 1.1%
• Germans (Sathmar Swabians) – 0.13%

By religion

99.4% of the county's population are Christian and of these:

• Romanian Orthodox – 59.7%
• Reformed – 18.1%;
• Catholic – 11.5% (Roman Catholic – 9.2%; Greek Catholic – 2.3%)
• Pentecostal – 5.7%;
• Baptists – 3.7%;
• Adventist – 0.3%;

Year	County population
1948	536,323
1956	574,488
1966	586,460
1977	633,094
1992	634,093
2002	600,246
2011	575,398

Geography

This county has a total area of 7,544 km (2,913 sq mi). In the East side of the County there are the Apuseni Mountains with heights up to 1,800 m (5,906 ft). The heights decrease westwards, passing through the hills an ending in the Romanian Western Plain – the eastern side of the Pannonian plain.

The county is mainly the Criș hydrographic basine with the rivers Crișul Repede, Crișul Negru and Barcău the main rivers.

Neighbours

• Sălaj County, Cluj County and Alba County in the East.
• Hungary in the West – Hajdú-Bihar County and Békés County
• Satu Mare County in the North.
• Arad County in the South.

History

Prior to World War I, the territory of the county belonged to Austria-Hungary and mostly was contained in the Bihar County of the Kingdom of Hungary. The territory of Bihor County was transferred to Romania from Hungary as successor state to Austria-Hungary in 1920 under the Treaty of Trianon. After the administrative unification law in 1925, the name of the county remained as it was, but the territory was reorganized.

In 1938, King Carol II promulgated a new Constitution, and subsequently he had the administrative division of the Romanian territory changed. 10 ținuturi (approximate translation: "lands") were created (by merging the counties) to be ruled by rezidenți regali (approximate translation: "Royal Residents") - appointed directly by the King - instead of the prefects. Bihor County became part of Ținutul Crișuri.

In 1940, part of the county was transferred back to Hungary with the rest of Northern Transylvania under the Second Vienna Award. Beginning in 1944, Romanian forces with Soviet assistance recaptured the ceded territory and reintegrated it into Romania. Romanian jurisdiction over the entire county per the Treaty of Trianon was reaffirmed in the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947. The county was disestablished by the communist government of Romania in 1950, and re-established in 1968 when Romania restored the county administrative system.

Economy

Bihor is one of the wealthiest counties in Romania, with a GDP per capita well above the national average. Recently, the economy has been driven by a number of construction projects. Bihor has the lowest unemployment rate in Romania and among the lowest in Europe, with only 2.4% unemployment, compared to Romania's average of 5.1%.

The predominant industries in the county are:

• Textile industry.
• Food and beverages industry.
• Mechanical components industry.
• Metallurgy.

In the west side of the county there are mines for extracting coal and bauxite. Crude oil is also extracted.

Tourism

The main tourist attractions in the county are:

• The city of Oradea.
• The Apuseni Mountains:
  • The Stâna de Vale Resort and the Iada valley.
  • The Caves around Padiș and on the Sighiștel River Valley.
  • The Bear's Cave.
• Băile Felix Resort.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Bihor County was adopted in 1998, and is a quarterly shield featuring a castle (for the Castle of Bihar), five wheat stalks with a ribbon, and a scroll with the text of Deșteaptă-te, române!, covered with a fess featuring three fish. It was subject to redesign in 2013 after it was discovered by a local teacher that the text on the scroll was erroneously written in Greek, rather than Cyrillic (the original alphabet used to write the poem's text) or the Latin alphabet. The county has no significant history with Greece.

1. "Population at 20 October 2011" (in Romanian). INSSE. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
2. "Numele Bihorului. Etimologie şi controverse". Oradea Mea. 23 July 2011. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
3. Romanian 2002 Census
4. National Institute of Statistics, "Populaţia după etnie" Archived 16 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine
5. Recensamantul Populatiei si Locuintelor 2011: Populația stabilă după etnie – județe, municipii, orașe, comune
6. Romania and Bihor County Census, 2002, (in Hungarian)
7. National Institute of Statistics, "Populația la recensămintele din anii 1948, 1956, 1966, 1977, 1992, 2002 și 2011" Archived 22 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine
8. Totorean, Adriana (23 April 2013). "Blazon greşit: Stema judeţului Bihor va fi refăcută, deoarece conţine un detaliu penibil". Ebihoreanul (in Romanian). Retrieved 21 October 2017.