Romanians are by far the most numerous group of speakers of an Eastern Romance language today. It has been said that they constitute "an island of Latinity"[5] in Eastern Europe, surrounded on all sides either by Slavic peoples (namely South Slavic and East Slavic peoples) or by the Hungarians. The Hungarian minority in Romania constitutes the country's largest minority, or as much as 6.0 per cent of the entire population.[6] With a population of about 19,054,267 people in 2022, Romania received 989,357 Ukrainian refugees on 27 May 2022, according to the United Nations (UN).[7]
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on 24 February 2022 triggered a major refugee crisis in Europe.[8] In connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, as part of the Russian-Ukrainian war, by 15 May 2022, more than 6,223,821 Ukrainian refugees left the territory of Ukraine, moving to the countries closest to the west of Ukraine, of which more than 919,574 people fled to neighbouring Romania.[7]
Romania's population has declined steadily in recent decades, from a peak of 23.2 million in 1990 to 19.12 million in 2021.[9] Among the causes of population decline are high mortality, a low fertility rate since 1990, and tremendous levels of emigration.[9]
In 1990, Romania's population was estimated to be 23.21 million inhabitants.[10] For the entire period 1990–2006, the estimated population loss tops 1.5 million,[10] but it is likely to be higher, given the explosion of migration for work after 2001 and the tendency of some migrants to settle permanently in the countries where they live.[11]
Birth and death rates in 1950–2008. A huge surge of the birth rate in 1967 is the most prominent feature of these graphs.
Sources give varied estimates for Romania's historical population. The National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (NIRDI) gives the following numbers (the figure for 2020 was provided by the National Institute of Statistics – INS):
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Romanians by counties (Ethnic maps 1930–2021)Ethnic map (1930 census)Ethnic map (1977 census)Ethnicity in Romania by county (inhabitants) based on the 2002 census dataRomanians in Romania based on 2002 census dataEthnic map (2011 census)The Romani minority in Romania by county (2011 census)
Slightly more than 10% of the population of Romania is formed of minorities in Romania. The principal minorities are Hungarians and Roma, although other smaller ethnic groups exist too. Before World War II, minorities represented more than 28% of the total population. During the war that percentage was halved, largely by the loss of the border areas of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina (to the former Soviet Union, now Moldova and Ukraine) and southern Dobrudja (to Bulgaria). Two-thirds of the ethnic German population either left or were deported after World War II, a period that was followed by decades of relatively regular (by communist standards) migration. During the interwar period in Romania, the total number of ethnic Germans amounted to as much as 786,000 (according to some sources and estimates dating to 1939),[13][14] a figure which had subsequently fallen to circa 36,000 as of 2011 in contemporary Romania. One of the reasons for which the number of Germans in Romania fell is because after the Romanian Revolution there has been a mass migration of Transylvania Saxons to Germany, in what was referred by British daily newspaper Guardian to as 'the most astonishing, and little reported, ethnic migration in modern Europe'.[15]
Of a total population of three quarter million Jews before World War II, about a third were killed during the Holocaust.[16] Mass emigration, mostly to Israel and United States, has reduced the surviving Jewish community to less than 6,000 in 2002 (it is estimated that the real numbers could be 3–4 times higher).[17]
Minority populations are greatest in Transylvania and the Banat, areas in the north and west of the country, which were part of the Kingdom of Hungary (after 1867 the Austria-Hungary) until the end of World War I. Even before the union with Romania, ethnic Romanians comprised the overall majority in Transylvania. However, ethnic Hungarians and Germans were the dominant urban population until relatively recently, while Hungarians still constitute the majority in Harghita and Covasna counties.
The Roma constitute one of Romania's largest minorities. According to the 2011 Romanian census, they number 621,573 people or 3.08% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians,[21] with significant populations in Mureș (8.9%) and Călărași (7,47%) counties. There are different estimates about the size of the total population of people with Roma ancestry in Romania because a lot of people of Roma descent do not declare themselves as Roma. The number of the Roma is usually underestimated in official statistics and may represent 5–11% of Romania's population.[22]
After Hungarians and the Roma, Ukrainians of Romania are the third-largest minority. According to the 2011 Romanian census they number 51,703 people, making up 0.3% of the total population.[23] Ukrainians mainly live in northern Romania, in areas close to the Ukrainian border. Over 60% of all Romanian Ukrainians live in Maramureș County (where they make up 6.77% of the population).
Censuses in Romania
Evolution of Romania's population between 1859–1899[24]
1 The results of the 1948 census are according to language. 2 Source:[29]3 Source:[29]4 Source:[29]5 Source:[29]6 Source:[30]7 Source:[31]8 Source:[32]
Romania has 41 counties and one city with a special status, namely Bucharest. Ilfov County has the highest crude birth rate (12.0‰), while Vâlcea County has the lowest crude birth rate (6.6‰). Birth rates are generally higher in rural areas compared to urban areas.
Romania is one of the least urbanised countries in Europe. Just a slight majority, 56.4 percent, lives in urban areas (12,546,212 people in total). The remainder, 43.6 percent, lives in rural areas (9,695,506 people in total).[45]
urban population: 54% of total population (2018)
rate of urbanization: −0.38% annual rate of change (2015–20 est.)
Sex ratio
at birth:
1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.05 male(s)/female
15–64 years:
0.99 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.71 male(s)/female
total population:
0.95 male(s)/female (2008 est.)
Infant mortality rate
9.2 deaths/1,000 live births (May 2010);[46] down from 17.3 deaths/1,000 live births in 2002.[47]
Life expectancy at birth
total population: 75.6 years (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 106th
65 years and over: 15.8% (male 1,420,144/female 2,097,659) (2016 est.)
As a consequence of the pro-natalist policies of the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime (see Decree 770), Romania has a higher proportion of people born in the late 1960s and 1970s its population than any other Western country except Slovenia. The generations born in 1967 and 1968 were the largest, although fertility remained relatively high until 1990. 8.55% of the Romanian population was born in the period from 1976 to 1980, compared with 6.82% of Americans and 6.33% of Britons.[49]
Age structure by ethnicity
Population by ethnicity based on age groups, according to the 2011 census:[50]
Religious affiliation tends to follow ethnic lines, with most ethnic Romanians identifying with the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Greek Catholic or Uniate church, reunified with the Orthodox Church by fiat in 1948, was restored after the 1989 revolution. The 2002 census indicates that 0.9% of the population is Greek Catholic, as opposed to about 10% prior to 1948. Roman Catholics, largely ethnic Hungarians and Germans, constitute 4.7% of the population; Calvinists, Baptists (see Baptist Union of Romania and Convention of the Hungarian Baptist Churches of Romania), Pentecostals, and Lutherans make up another 5%. There are smaller numbers of Unitarians, Muslims, and other religions.
^In fertility rates, 2.1 and above is a stable population and has been marked blue, 2 and below leads to an aging population and the result is that the population decreases.
References
^"Populația rezidentă la 23 martie 2023" [Resident population as of March 23, 2023] (PDF). INS (in Romanian). Institutul Național de Statistică. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
^ abWorld Population Prospects. The 2010 Revision(PDF) (Report). Vol. I: Comprehensive Tables. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, United Nations, New York. 2011. p. 162.
^Note: Crude migration change (per 1000) is a trend analysis, an extrapolation based average population change (current year minus previous) minus natural change of the current year (see table vital statistics). As average population is an estimate of the population in the middle of the year and not end of the year.
^Dr. Gerhard Reichning, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Teil 1, Bonn 1995, Page 17
^Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt – Wiesbaden. – Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1958 Page 46
^ ab Leonida Colescu, director of Romanian Statistics Service between 1899–1922, discovered that the number of people was overestimated in the census conducted in 1859–1860 and calculated that the real figure was 3,864,848 people. Leonida Colescu (1944). Analiza rezultatelor recensãmântului general al populatiei României din 1899(PDF). Institutul National de Statistica. p. 7–8; 19.
.jpg)
.png)
.png)
.png)
