Romania faces worrying demographic crisis, CIA says

Using the most recent data collected during the census of the past months, the US intelligence service warned that Romania has the second highest mortality rate in the world. At the same time, Romania’s natality rate places it at the bottom of the ranking. The two indicators signal an unprecedented demographic decline.

CIA’s The World Factbook provides essential intelligence on numerous topics, including people, government, energy, and economy, among others, for entities worldwide. It recently updated its figures on Romania, highlighting a rate of 15.26 deaths per thousand inhabitants.

Only Serbia (16.39) outpaces Romania concerning the mortality rate. Ukraine ranks sixth in the ranking, with 13.77 deaths per thousand inhabitants, while Russia ranks seventh, with a rate of 13.36.

Romania also has 8.76 births per thousand inhabitants, ranking 207th out of 228 worldwide. The country has a population growth rate of -1.09%, earning it the 231st place out of 237 countries taken under consideration.

“It’s true that Romania is going through an accentuated demographic crisis and there is an urgent need for a demographic policy thought out by the most important institutions of the state and, obviously, research into the quality of life of families in Romania, otherwise we will not be able to stop the decline demographically,” said minister for the family Gabriela Firea.

Firea underlines the need for “solid” research into the issue, but the government of which she is a part allocated the least amount of money for research in the EU, according to Eurostat data.

“The departure of young people to the West caused the elderly, or, to put it another way, infertile families from a demographic point of view, to remain in the country,” says sociologist Antonio Amuza cited by Digi24.

The CIA service estimates Romania’s 2022 population to be 18.5 million. Those between 25-54 are 46.2% of the total population and represent the dominant age group in the country. Slightly over half (54.5%) of Romanians live in cities, but the rate of urbanization is estimated to be at -0.15% until 2025.

The CIA rankings have to be confirmed by the data collected and centralized by Romanian state authorities during the census.

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