The Annals of Valahia University of Târgovişte, Geographical Series, Tome 10 / 2010 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 109 TERRITORIAL CONCENTRATION OF THE POOR PEOPLE IN THE PETROŞANI DEPRESSION Andra COSTACHE 1 1 Valahia University of Târgovişte Abstract: The paper analyses the features of the deprived urban areas from Petroşani Depression, characterized by the residential concentration of the poor people, but also by poor living conditions, households with limited access to utilities and low acces to urban services. These areas have been identified following field surveys applied in the six towns of the studied region. Key words: Petroşani Depression, poverty, deprived urban areas 1. Dimensions of poverty in the Petroşani Depression. In the Petroşani Depression, the level of poverty is a direct consequence of the regions’ evolution in the last 50 years and of the economic restructuring. These factors have had an impact on the structure of active and inactive population and influenced the income sources and the income level, which are the main prerequisites of poverty. Compared to the national average for urban areas, in the cities of Petroşani Depression the income from wages, from self-employed activities or from goods saling (other than agricultural products) have a lower weight. On the other hand, there are higher than the national urban averages the value of social transfers and the amount of services that are covered by certain discounts provided by employers (in this case the National Pit Coal Company) – Table 1. This reflects the dependence of incomes on the welfare system and on the coal-extracting activities (the revenues of 14.3% of households rely solely on wages, social benefits or social transfers from CNH - Negulescu et al., 2004). Table 1 Structure of the total household income Type of revenues Petroşani Depression – urban (%) România –urban (%) Cash income 78.8 85.3 Wages, allowances, bonuses 37.2 57.3 Self-employed activities, sale of goods other than agricultural products 1.3 4.6 Sales of agricultural products 0.4 0.6 Revenues provided by the welfare system - Pensions - Unemployment benefit, support allowance - Other social transfers 36.6 22.9 2.0 11.6 18.8 14.6 1.1 3.1 In kind income 21.2 14.7 The amount of free or discounted services, provided by the employer (NPC) 17.1 0.7 The value of agricultural products produced by the private households for own use 4.1 14 (Stănculescu, 2004) The structure of inactive population and of the workforce, as well as the ratio between the two categories show a discrepancy between the number of people dependents or