The functional role of TAUs in Cluj County is rapidly changing. More and more communes tend to rely on the service sector, losing their agricultural and industrial historical specialization, in line with the trend of Cluj-Napoca.
The communes within the Metropolitan Area of Cluj-Napoca have, with one or two exceptions (Jucu and maybe Apahida), a predominant residential function at the moment, while their agricultural land is shrinking. Unfortunately, this functional specialization was informal and not guided by a metropolitan development vision.
The population tends to concentrate around Cluj-Napoca and the main roads, whereas peripheries are aging and shrinking. Tens of villages isolated from the urban centers will soon depopulate completely, while the „rural” suburbs of Cluj-Napoca have reached a number of inhabitants even bigger than most of the towns in Romania and that legally allows them to become directly municipalities. Despite this obvious reality, the urban/rural status of the settlements has not changed since 1968.