Romania’s population at January 1, 2022 was 19.038 million inhabitants/ The demographic ageing process is deepening

Romania’s resident population was 19.038 million on 1 January 2022, down by 163,600 people compared to 1 January 2021, according to a press release from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), quoted by Agerpres.

The main cause of this decline is the negative natural increase (the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 156,000). This figure is adjusted by the number of births and deaths that were late in being registered at civil registrars.

According to the INS, on 1 January 2022, the urban resident population was 10.281 million, down 0.1% from 1 January 2021. The female population on 1 January 2022 was 9.728 million, down 0.9% from the same date the previous year.

The process of demographic aging has deepened compared to January 1, 2021, with an increase in the share of the elderly population (aged 65 and over). The demographic aging index increased from 122.4 (on January 1, 2021) to 123.6 elderly persons per 100 young persons (on January 1, 2022).

The share of the population aged 0-14 in the total population stagnated at 15.8%, while the share of the population aged 65 and over in the total population increased by 0.2 percentage points (from 19.3% in 2021 to 19.5% on 1 January 2022). Thus, the demographic dependency ratio increased from 54.0 (on 1 January 2021) to 54.4 young and elderly persons per 100 adults (on 1 January 2022).

Romania continues to be a country of emigration, the second main cause of the country’s population decline.

The balance of international migration in 2021 was negative, with the number of emigrants exceeding the number of immigrants by just over 16,000 people.

During 2021, men emigrated at a higher rate than women (50.2%). And among immigrants, men were in the majority (54.7%).