Demographics of Romania
- 9 min read
- 9 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Demography, Population (human biology) and Population density
About 89.3% of the people of Romania are ethnic Romanians (as per 2021 census), whose native language, Romanian, is an Eastern Romance language, descended from Latin (more specifically from Vulgar Latin) with some Slavic, French, Turkish, German, Hungarian, Greek and Italian borrowings.
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" 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. 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).
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on 24 February 2022 triggered a major refugee crisis in Europe. 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 188,270 people fled to neighbouring Romania.
Population evolution
Romania's population has declined steadily in recent decades, from a peak of 23.2 million in 1990 to 19.12 million in 2021. Among the causes of population decline are high mortality, a low fertility rate since 1990, and tremendous levels of emigration.
In 1990, Romania's population was estimated at 23.21 million. Between 1990 and 2006, the estimated population loss exceeded 1.5 million, though the actual figure is likely higher due to the surge in labor migration after 2001 and the tendency of some migrants to settle permanently in their host countries.
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):
View source data. View source data. View source data. View source data.
Sign in to keep reading
8 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Ethnic groups
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), a figure which had subsequently fallen to circa 36,000 as of 2011 in contemporary Romania. One reason for the decline of Romanian Germans is that after the Romanian Revolution there has been a mass migration of Transylvania Saxons to Germany, in what was described by Simon Jenkins in the British daily newspaper The Guardian as "the most astonishing, and little reported, ethnic migration in modern Europe".
Of a total population of three quarters of a million Jews before World War II, about a third were killed during the Holocaust. 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).
Hungarians (Magyars; especially in Harghita, Covasna, and Mureș counties) and Roma are the principal minorities, with a declining German population (Banat Swabians in Timiș; Transylvanian Saxons in Sibiu, Brașov and elsewhere), and smaller numbers of Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and Banat Bulgarians (in Banat), Ukrainians (especially in Maramureș and Bukovina), Greeks (especially in Brăila and Constanța), Turks and Tatars (mainly in Constanța), Armenians, Russians (Lipovans, Old Believers in Tulcea), Jews and others. Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Bucharest and other cities have again become increasingly cosmopolitan, including identifiable presences from outside the EU (Chinese, Turks, Moldovans, Syrians, Iraqis, Africans) as well as from the EU (French, Italians, Germans from Germany, British, Greeks). In Romania, there are also guest workers from countries such as Vietnam and Nepal.
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 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, 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.
In 2007, the Council of Europe (CoE) estimated that approximately 1.85 million Roma lived in Romania, based on an average between the lowest estimate (1.2 to 2.2 million people) and the highest estimate (1.8 to 2.5 million people) with a maximum percentage of 12%, available at the time; the highest estimate, generated for the year 1991 and originating from a Securitate report, is considered unreliable, and Romanian post-communist censuses have consistently produced far lower figures. The CoE's average estimate is equivalent to 8.32% of the population, a figure difficult to verify due to the mobility of Romani and the reluctance of some to disclose their ethnicity.
After the Hungarians and the Roma, the 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. 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
Vital statistics
Total fertility rate from 1850 to 1899
The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
Before World War I
Interwar period (between World War I and II)
After World War II
Main sources:
Source: National Institute of Statistics
Notable events in Romanian demographics:
- 1946–1947: Romanian famine of 1946–1947
- 1967–1989 – Decree 770
- 1989 – Romanian revolution
- 2007 – Romanian accession to the EU
- 2020-2022 – COVID-19 Pandemic
* Data as of January 1, 2025. Data as of July 1 are to be released.
Note:
The 2011 Romanian census gave a figure of 20,121,641.
The 2021 Romanian census gave a figure of 19,053,815.
Live births, deaths, natural increase, and their rates refer to the usual resident population of Romania between 2013 and 2024.
Current vital statistics
The current vital statistics of Romania are as follows
View source data.
Total fertility rates by region and county
Life expectancy 1950–2020
Average life expectancy at birth of the total population.
Birth rates by county
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.
Demographics statistics
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.
- One birth every 3 minutes
- One death every 2 minutes
- Net loss of one person every 5 minutes
- One net migrant every 19 minutes
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Population
c. 19,000,000 (January 2023 est.)
Median age
- total: 42.4 years.
- male: 40.6 years
- female: 44.1 years (2021 census)
Birth rate
- 8.7 births/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 211th
Death rate
- 12 deaths/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 17th
Total fertility rate
- 1.71 children born/woman (2017) Country comparison to the world: 154th
Net migration rate
- −0.2 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 113th
- −0.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Mother's mean age at first birth
- 27.7 years (2024 est.)
Population growth rate
- −0.35% (2018 est.) Country comparison to the world: 219th
- −0.127% (2007 estimate).
Urban–rural ratio
Romania is one of the least urbanised countries in Europe. Just a slight majority, 54.7% lives in urban areas (est. 2023), and the rate of urbanization is −0.15% annual rate of change (2020–25 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
5.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2024); down from 9.2 deaths/1,000 live births (May 2010); down from 17.3 deaths/1,000 live births in 2002.
Life expectancy at birth
- total population: 76.25 years (2025 est.) Country comparison to the world: 86th
- male: 72.74 years (2025 est.)
- female: 79.82 years (2025 est.)
Literacy
definition: age 14 and over can read and write (2021 Census)
- total population: 99.17%
- male: 99.03%
- female: 99.29%
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)
- total: 14 years
- male: 14 years
- female: 15 years (2016)
Unemployment, youth ages 15–24
- total: 20.6%. Country comparison to the world: 62nd
- male: 19.9%
- female: 21.8% (2016 est.)
Nationality
The noun form is Romanian(s), and the adjectival form is Romanian.
Age structure
- 0–14 years: 15.4%
- 15–64 years: 62%
- 65 years and over: 22.6% (2024 est.)
As a consequence of the pro-natalist policies of the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime (see Decree 770), Romania has a higher proportion of its population born in the late 1960s and 1970s 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.
View source data.
Age structure by ethnicity
Population by ethnicity based on age groups, according to the 2011 census:
Immigration
Foreign-born population (according to Eurostat):
Net migration data
Religion
- Romanian Orthodox — 86.7%
- Roman Catholic — 4.7%
- Protestant Churches (Calvin, Lutheran, Unitarian, Pentecostal, Baptist, Adventist) — 5.3%
- Greek Catholic – Uniate — 0.9%
- Islam — 0.3%
- Atheist — ≈0.04% (9,271 people)
- No religion — 0.1%
- Other religions — 2.0%
- Refused to declare — 0.1%
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 indicated that 0.9% of the population was 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 made up another 5%. There were smaller numbers of Unitarians, Muslims, and other religions.