BREAKING Census results: Romania’s population decreased by 1.1 million. The share of ethnic Hungarians decreases, the share of Roma increases slightly / The aging process accelerates / Education level increases, illiteracy decreases / Which counties lost the most inhabitants

The National Institute of Statistics (INS) announced on Friday the provisional results of this year’s population and housing census. The president of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Tudorel Andrei, has already announced that the population in Romania is about 19 million, one million less than in the 2011 census. „We have observed a trend: the cities of county seats are reducing their population and the population in the neighboring towns is increasing,” said Tudorel Andrei.

Key information from the 2022 Census:

The resident population of Romania is 19,053,815 persons. This is a decrease of 1,067,826 persons compared to 2011. Gender structure:
– 9,808.3 thousand (representing 51.5%) female and
– 9,941.2 thousand (representing 52.2%) urban.

Information on ethnicity was available for 16,568.9 thousand persons (out of a total of 19,053.8 thousand persons forming the resident population of Romania). The population of Hungarian ethnicity registered in the census was 1,002.2 thousand persons (6.0%, down from 6.5% in the previous census), and the number of those who declared themselves Roma was 569.5 thousand persons (3.4%, slightly up from 3.3% in 2011). The ethnic groups for which the number of persons over 20 thousand was recorded were Ukrainians (45.8 thousand persons), Germans (22.9 thousand persons), and Turkish (20.9 thousand persons).

The confessional structure was declared by 16,397.3 thousand people out of the total resident population and shows that 85.3% of the people who declared their religion are of Orthodox religion (down from 86.5%); 4.5% declared themselves of Roman Catholic religion (slightly down from 4.6%), 3% of the Reformed religion (slightly down from 3. Between 0.4% and 0.8% were Greek Catholic (0.7%), Baptist (0.6%), Seventh-day Adventist and Muslim (0.4% each). 0.9% of the total population declared themselves „without religion” or atheists or agnostics.

Of the total resident population, 43.5% have an average level of education (post-secondary, high school, vocational or master’s technical), up from 41.4%. Also, 40.5% have a low level (primary, secondary or no schooling) – down from 44.2%. The population with higher education is 16%, up from 14.4%.

143.6 thousand people are illiterate, down sharply from 245.4 thousand in 2011.

The process of demographic aging has deepened compared to 10 years ago (2011 census), with the share of the elderly population (aged 65 and over) increasing. The demographic aging index has depreciated by almost 20 percentage points, rising to 121.2 elderly persons per 100 young persons (LPR 2021) compared to 101.8 (LPR 2011). The demographic dependency ratio has increased within a decade from 47.0 to 55.5 young and elderly persons per 100 adults.

Compared to the resident population registered in 2011, Romania lost 1.1 million inhabitants (1067.8 thousand people). Out of 42 counties (including Bucharest municipality), 39 counties lost population. The exceptions are Ilfov county, which gained 153.9 thousand people, but also Bistrița-Năsăud and Suceava counties, which gained 9.8 and 7.7 thousand inhabitants respectively.

The largest population reductions were recorded in Caras-Severin (-16.6%, i.e. 49.0 thousand fewer people) and Teleorman (-14.9%, i.e. 56.6 thousand fewer people).

In absolute terms, the municipality of Bucharest recorded the biggest loss of population, with 166.4 thousand people (-8.8%). It should be noted, however, that the population of Ilfov increased strongly, which means that many inhabitants of Bucharest have settled in neighboring localities. The counties of Prahova (-67.8 thousand, representing 8.9%) and Dolj (-61.1 thousand, representing 9.3%) also lost population.

Background. Main data from the old census of 2011:

On 20 October 2011, the stable population of Romania was 20,121,641 persons, of which 10,333,064 were women (51.4%). Compared to the previous census, the stable population had decreased by 1,559.3 thousand persons.

The 6 counties with the exception of the Municipality of Bucharest (1,883.4 thousand) were at that time the first 6 counties in terms of stable population:

Iași (772.3 thousand)
Prahova (762.9 thousand)
Cluj (691,1 thousand)
Constanța (684.0 thousand)
Timis (683.5 thousand)
Dolj (660.5 thousand people).
Counties with the lowest number of inhabitants:

Covasna (210.2 thousand)
Tulcea (213.1 thousand)
Sălaj (224.4 thousand)
Mehedinți (265.4 thousand)
Ialomita (274.1 thousand)
Giurgiu (281.4 thousand)
Compared to 2002, the distribution of the stable population by age group in 2011 clearly shows the phenomenon of population ageing. Thus, the age groups 10 – 14 years, 15 – 19 years and 20 – 24 years have decreased as a share of the total stable population, due to the continuous decrease in the number of births after 2002. The age groups 25 – 29 years, 30 – 34 years and 35 – 39 years had a higher share than in 2002 due to the phenomenon of ageing of the generations 15 – 29 years, and the age group of „decretists”, namely 40 – 44 years, had the highest share of 8.7% of the total. At the same time, the 75-79, 80-84 and 85+ age groups respectively accounted for about 7.2% of the stable population in 2011, compared to 4.9% in 2002.

Information on ethnicity was available in 2011 for 18,884.8 thousand persons (out of a total of 20,121.6 thousand persons). The population of Hungarian ethnicity registered at the census was 1,227.6 thousand persons (6.5%), and the number of those who declared themselves Roma was 621.6 thousand persons (3.3%). The ethnic groups for which the number of persons registered was over 20 thousand were Ukrainians (50.9 thousand persons), Germans (36.0 thousand), Turkish (27.7 thousand), Russians-Lipovans (23.5 thousand) and Tatars (20.3 thousand persons).

The religious structure was declared in 2011 by 18,861.9 thousand people out of the total stable population and shows that 86.5% of the people who declared their religion were Orthodox; 4.6% declared themselves Roman Catholic, 3.2% Reformed and 1.9% Pentecostal.

Of the total stable population over 10 years of age, 44.2% had a low level of education in 2011 (primary, secondary or no schooling), 41.4% medium level (post-secondary, secondary, vocational or technical master) and 14.4% higher level. On 20 October 2011 there were 245.4 thousand illiterate people.

One of the segments of the population observed in the October 2011 census, but which is not part of the stable population, is the category of persons who have gone abroad for at least one year. The number of persons abroad for at least one year in 2011 was 727.5 thousand and included only a part of the number of foreign migrants. The significant under-registration was due to the fact that, at the critical time of the census, a large part of these persons had gone abroad with their whole families and there were no other persons (in the country) to declare the required information about them.