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About 89.5% of the people of Romania are ethnic Romanians, whose language, Romanian, is an Eastern Romance language, descended primarily from Latin with some Slavic, German, Greek, Hungarian and Turkish borrowings. The degree to which they have historical continuity north of the Danube since the days of the Roman Empire is a matter of some controversy (''see Origin of Romanians''), but there is no question that they 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"^[1] in Central Europe, surrounded on all sides either by Slavic peoples or by the Hungarians.
The Hungarian minority in Romania constitute the country's largest minority, 6.6% of the population.

Contents

Minorities

Religion

Culture

Statistics

Population

Age structure

★ Urban - 52.70% ★ Rural - 47.30%

Sex ratio

Infant mortality rate

Life expectancy at birth

Total fertility rate

Nationality

Ethnic groups

Religions

Notes

External links

Minorities

''Main article: Minorities of Romania''
Hungarians (Székelys and Magyars) (especially in Harghita, Covasna and Mureş) and The Roma (commonly known as ''ţigani'') are the principal minorities, with a declining German population (Banat Swabians in Timiş; Transylvanian Saxons in Sibiu, Braşov and elsewhere) and smaller numbers of Slovaks, Serbs, Chinese, Croats and Banat Bulgarians (in Banat), Ukrainians (especially in Bukovina), Greeks of Romania (especially in Brăila and Constanţa), Turks and Tatars (mainly in Constanţa), Armenians, Great Russians (Lipovans, Old Believers in Tulcea), Jews and others. Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Bucharest has again become an increasingly cosmopolitan city, including identifiable Chinese and Irish presences. Minority populations are greatest in Transylvania and the Banat, areas in the north and west, which were possessions of the Habsburg Empire (after 1867 the Austro-Hungarian Empire) until 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, and still are the majority in Harghita and Covasna counties.
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), as well as by the postwar flight or deportation of ethnic Germans.
Though Romanian troops participated in the destruction of the Jewish communities of Bessarabia and Bukovina, a large proportion of Jews in Romania itself survived the Holocaust; of an initial population of about 850,000, 460,000 survived. Mass emigration, mostly to Israel and United States, has reduced the surviving Jewish community to an estimated 12,000.^[2]. In recent years, more than two-thirds of the ethnic Germans in Romania have emigrated to Germany, leaving behind roughly 60,000.

Religion

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.

Culture

''Main article: Culture of Romania''
Romania's rich cultural traditions have been nourished by many sources, some of which predate the Roman occupation. The traditional folk arts, including dance, wood carving, ceramics, weaving and embroidery of costumes and household decorations, and fascinating folk music, still flourish in many parts of the country. Despite strong Austrian, German, and especially French influence, many of Romania's great artists, such as the painter Nicolae Grigorescu, the poet Mihai Eminescu, the composer George Enescu, and the sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi, drew their inspiration from Romanian folk traditions.
The country's many Orthodox monasteries, as well as the Transylvanian Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church, some of which date back to the 13th century, are repositories of artistic treasures. The famous painted monasteries of Bukovina make an important contribution to European architecture.
Poetry and the theater play an important role in contemporary Romanian life. Classic Romanian plays, such as those of Ion Luca Caragiale, as well as works by modern or avant-garde Romanian and international playwrights, find sophisticated and enthusiastic audiences in the many theaters of the capital and of the smaller cities.

Statistics

Population

The population as of March 2002 is 21,698,181.
Different sources give extremely different statistics for the evolution of Romania's population history. The National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (NIRDI) gives the following numbers:
'Population evolution:' (censuses)

★ 1859 (or 1900 ?) - 8,600,000 (Wallachia and Moldavia without Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transylvania)

★ 1912 - 12,923,600 (adding Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina)

★ 1930 - 18,057,028 (14,280,729 is without Bessarabia and northern Bukovina)

★ 1948 - 15,872,624

★ 1956 - 17,489,450

★ 1966 - 19,103,163

★ 1977 - 21,559,910

★ 1989 - 23,151,564

★ 1992 - 22,810,035
: Statistics 1859–1992 from NIRDI: [1]
However, the following numbers, very different for the early years, come from the Tacitus Historical Atlas [2]

★ 1844 - 3.6 million

★ 1861 - 3.9 million

★ 1870 - 4.3 million

★ 1880 - 4.5 million

★ 1890 - 5.3 million

★ 1900 - 6.0 million

★ 1910 - 6.9 million

★ 1915 - 7.8 million

★ 1921 - 15.6 million

★ 1930 - 17.9 million

★ 1939 - 19.9 million

★ 1940 - 15.9 million

★ 1941 - 13.6 million

★ 1946 - 15.8 million
: Statistics 1844–1946 from Tacitus Historical Atlas [3]
Thereafter, the numbers are essentially the same as the NIRDI numbers.

Age structure

★ ''0-14 years:'' 18% (male 2,111,320; female 2,015,347)

★ ''15-64 years:'' 68% (male 7,597,958; female 7,707,498)

★ ''65 years and over:'' 14% (male 1,237,368; female 1,741,630) (2000 est.)
As a consequence of the pro-natalist policies of the Ceaucescu regime, Romania has a higher proportion of young adults in its population than any other Western country except Slovenia. 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 ^[3]
===Urban-rural ratio^[4]

★ Urban - 52.70%

★ Rural - 47.30%

Population growth rate===
The population growth rate is -0.12% (2006 estimate). [5]
In common with many Eastern European countries, Romania has experienced a decline in population in recent years. The population fell by 1,129,000 or 4.95% in the decade 1992-2002. In three counties, Caraş-Severin, Hunedoara and Teleorman, the population fell by more than 10% over the same period. Only two counties, Ilfov and Iaşi saw their population increase.
;'Birth rate':10.7 births/1,000 population (2006 est.) [6]
;'Death rate':11.77 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.) [7]
;'Net migration rate':-0.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.) [8]

Sex ratio

;''at birth:'':1.05 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 (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate

17.3 deaths/1,000 live births (2002), [9].

Life expectancy at birth

★ ''Total population:'' 69.93 years

★
★ ''male:'' 66.1 years

★
★ ''female:'' 73.99 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.35 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Nationality

The noun form is Romanian(s), and the adjectival form is Romanian.

Ethnic groups

Data as of 2002:

★ Romanian 89.5%

★ Hungarian 6.6%

★ Roma 2.5%

★ German 0.3%

★ Ukrainian 0.3%

Religions

★ Romanian Orthodox - 86.7%

★ Roman Catholicism in Romania - 4.7%

★ Protestant - 3.7%

★ Pentecostal - 1.5%

★ Greek Catholic - Uniate - 0.9%

★ Islam in Romania - 0.3%

★ Atheist - ~0% (9,271 people)

★ No religion - 0.1%

★ Other religions - 2.0%

★ Refused to declare - 0.1%

Notes

1. See, for example, Fabio Bordignon, "Italian Decentralisation in Romania", SEF 2003, Warsaw. Abstract available online.
2. Comunitati evreiesti din România, B'nai B'rith International and Federaţia Comunitatii Evreiesti din România. Accessed online 4 December 2006
3. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_tot_pop_age_252_of_the_tot-total-population-age-25-29.
4. Romanian Census, 2002 [4]

External links

★ United Nations Statistics - Romania

★ Romanian National Statistic Institute (site is in Romanian, pdf files are in Romanian and English)

★ Census of 2002 statistics

★ Population density map