It administers seven villages: Balda (Báld), Larga (Lárga), Moruț (Marocháza), Sărmășel (Kissármás), Sărmășel-Gară (Bánffytanya), Titiana (Titiána), and Vișinelu (Csehtelke).

The town lies in the Transylvanian Plain, at an altitude of 347 m (1,138 ft), on the banks of the rivers Pârâul de Câmpie and Frata.

[4] According to the 2011 census, the town had 6,833 inhabitants, divided among the following ethnic groups:[5] Romanians (67.24%), Hungarians (22.36%), and Roma (10.2%).

On the present-day territory of Romania, the first natural gas deposit was discovered in 1909, in Sărmășel (then in Austria-Hungary).

In 1914 the first gas pipe was finished, spanning from Sărmășel to Turda and on to Ocna Mureș, with a length of 55 kilometres (34 miles) and 153 millimetres (6 in) diameter;[6]: 37  in 1916, Turda became the first city in Europe to have public street lights fueled by natural gas.