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Difference between revisions of "Romania"
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==Demography of Romania== | ==Demography of Romania== | ||
'''The People''' | |||
*Ethnic groups | |||
Historical and archaeological evidence and linguistic survivals confirm that the area of present-day Romania had a fully developed society of Dacian tribes long before the Roman armies crossed the Danube into what became the province of Dacia. Therefore, though Roman influence was profound and created a civilization that managed to maintain its identity during the great folk migrations that followed the collapse of the empire, some Romanians are quick to identify their country’s origins in the intermixing of the indigenous Dacian people and the Roman settlers. | |||
About nine-tenths of the country’s people are ethnically Romanian. There are also many ethnic Hungarians, who reside largely in Transylvania, in the northwestern area of the country. A small percentage of Romanian citizens identify themselves as Roma (Gypsies), and ethnic Germans make up an even tinier amount of the populace. In 1930 there were about 342,000 Germans living in Romania (about 4 percent of the population). Following World War II, tens of thousands of ethnic Germans were deported to the Soviet Union, and others emigrated as opportunities presented themselves, generally to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). After the Romanian revolution of 1989, there was another mass exodus of ethnic Germans to Germany. In the early 21st century, Germans made up a minuscule portion of the population. | |||
Similarly, Romania’s Jewish population significantly decreased during and after World War II. The events of the Holocaust and opportunities to emigrate to other parts of the world reduced the Jewish population from about 750,000 in 1930 to 43,000 in 1966. A mass exodus to Israel ensued after the revolution, leaving an even smaller Jewish community behind. | |||
*Languages | |||
Romanian, a Romance language, is the official language of the country, though technically it is the Daco-Romanian dialect that is spoken by nine-tenths of the populace in several regional variants. Hungarian is the only other language of Romania that is spoken by more than a million people. Smaller numbers speak Romany, German, Turkish, Serbian, and other languages. | |||
'''[[Romanian Language]]''' | '''[[Romanian Language]]''' | ||
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Romanian language, also spelled Rumanian, Romanian Româna, Romance language spoken primarily in Romania and Moldova. Four principal dialects may be distinguished: Daco-Romanian, the basis of the standard language, spoken in Romania and Moldova in several regional variants; Aromanian, or Macedo-Romanian, spoken in scattered communities in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and Serbia; Megleno-Romanian, a nearly extinct dialect of northern Greece; and Istro-Romanian, also nearly extinct, spoken on the Istrian Peninsula of Croatia. Mutual intelligibility between the major dialects is difficult; the Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian, and Aromanian are sometimes classed as languages distinct from Romanian proper, or Daco-Romanian, which has many slightly varying dialects of its own. Moldovan, the national language of Moldova, is a form of Daco-Romanian. It is written in the Latin alphabet.--->[[Romanian Language|>>>Read More.<<<]] | Romanian language, also spelled Rumanian, Romanian Româna, Romance language spoken primarily in Romania and Moldova. Four principal dialects may be distinguished: Daco-Romanian, the basis of the standard language, spoken in Romania and Moldova in several regional variants; Aromanian, or Macedo-Romanian, spoken in scattered communities in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and Serbia; Megleno-Romanian, a nearly extinct dialect of northern Greece; and Istro-Romanian, also nearly extinct, spoken on the Istrian Peninsula of Croatia. Mutual intelligibility between the major dialects is difficult; the Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian, and Aromanian are sometimes classed as languages distinct from Romanian proper, or Daco-Romanian, which has many slightly varying dialects of its own. Moldovan, the national language of Moldova, is a form of Daco-Romanian. It is written in the Latin alphabet.--->[[Romanian Language|>>>Read More.<<<]] | ||
*Religion | |||
Under communist rule, religion was officially viewed as a personal matter, and relatively few restrictions were placed upon it (compared with those imposed by other communist regimes), although the government made efforts to undermine religious teachings and faith in favour of science and empiricism. When the communists came to power in 1948, they continued the monarchy’s practice of requiring all churches to be registered with the state (under its Department of Cults), which retained administrative and financial control, thus becoming the ultimate authority on matters of religion. Despite these incursions, Romanians remained devout. After the 1989 revolution, Romanians were free to practice their religions. | |||
Almost nine-tenths of Romanians are adherents of the Romanian Orthodox Church, headed by a patriarch in Bucharest. Roman Catholicism is the primary religion of ethnic Hungarians and Swabian Germans. The Eastern rite (Uniate) church is prominent in Transylvania. In 1948 it was forcibly united with the Romanian Orthodox Church by the communist regime, but its independence was restored after 1989. Protestantism, both Lutheran and Calvinist, is practiced by some ethnic Hungarians and Germans. Other Protestant churches that are represented in Romania include the Presbyterian Evangelical Church and the Unitarian church. In 1950, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and Pentecostals were forced to form the Federation of Protestant Cults, but they too had their independence restored after 1989. There is a small Jewish community, and Islam is practiced in the Dobruja and along the Black Sea coast by ethnic Tatars and Turks. The Roma have traditionally blended Romanian Orthodoxy with their own spiritual traditions. Since 1989 some Roma have been attracted to the Pentecostal and Evangelical denominations of Protestantism. | |||
*Settlement patterns | |||
The natural environment of Romania long has offered favourable conditions for human settlement. The accessibility of the region to the movements of peoples across the Eurasian landmass has predisposed the region to absorb cultural influences from many countries and peoples, and this too is reflected in the contemporary patterns of Romanian life. | |||
About one-third of Romania’s population lives within the regions of Transylvania and Dobruja, with the remainder in Walachia and Moldavia. During the medieval period the principalities of Walachia and Moldavia, which united in 1859 to form the state of Romania, were independent feudal states, with mountain crests marking a political frontier. Initially, the core areas of these states were centred in the foothills of the Carpathians; only later, as the Romanian lands on the plains were gradually consolidated, were the major settlements transferred from the mountains, first to Târgovişte and Suceava and later to Bucharest and Iași. The Roma community is divided between those who have assimilated into Romanian culture and those who follow a traditional nomadic lifestyle. The period of Ottoman rule left an ethnic legacy of Turk and Tatar settlements along the lower Danube. | |||
Szeklers, a Hungarian-speaking people, began settling in southeastern Transylvania after 900 ce. The Saxon Germans from the Rhineland areas were encouraged by the Hungarians to settle along the Carpathian arc in the 12th and 13th centuries. They built fortified villages and churches (many of which were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1993) to defend Transylvania against invading Tatars and Turks. The Roma appeared in what is now Romania in the 14th century, having migrated in stages from northern India, only to be enslaved until the mid-19th century. In the early 18th century, Austria-Hungary’s Habsburg rulers encouraged Germans to settle in the Banat, which had been ravaged under Ottoman domination. The Habsburgs hoped that these Germans would help to fortify the region against invasion, revive destroyed farmland, and promote Roman Catholicism in eastern Europe. As enticements, the German settlers were offered land, supplies, and livestock and were exempt from paying taxes. Although only some of the emigrants were from Swabia, in southwestern Germany, the Hungarians referred to all the newly arrived Germans as Swabians. Throughout the 18th century, communities of Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, and Romanians also settled in the plains of the Banat. Jews from Poland and Russia arrived during the first half of the 19th century. | |||
Romania’s urban settlements were situated at points of commercial or strategic significance, and the great majority of present-day towns are either on or in the immediate neighbourhood of the ruins of ancient settlements, whether fortress or market towns. The oldest towns were founded on the Black Sea shores, and urban development spread only later to the plains and then to the mountains. It was common for settlements at opposite ends of the main trans-Carpathian routes to acquire urban status. In fact, the turbulent history of the country favoured some of these early settlements, which grew into modern towns and cities. The ancient commercial trade between these old market towns lends support to the view that the mountains have served as much as a link as they have as a barrier in the country’s development. During the Middle Ages many “Ungureni”—Romanians from the inner side of the mountains under Hungarian rule—came to settle on the outer side with its greater agricultural potential. In the many lowland areas scattered among the mountains there has been a long continuity of settlement, as may be seen in very old place-names and distinct regional consciousness. | |||
A dispersed type of rural settlement is generally found in the foothill, tableland, and upland regions. The scattered village proper is found at the highest elevations and reflects the rugged terrain and pastoral economic life. The population maintains many traditional features in architecture, dress, and social customs, and the old market centres, or nedei, are still important. Small plots and dwellings are carved out of the forests and on the upland pastures wherever physical conditions permit. Where the relief is less difficult, the villages are slightly more concentrated, although individual dwellings still tend to be scattered among agricultural plots. Mining, livestock raising, and agriculture are the main economic activities, the latter characterized by terrace cultivation on the mountain slopes, a legacy of Roman times. The Subcarpathian region, with hills and valleys covered by plowed fields, vineyards, orchards, and pastures and dotted with dwelling places, typically has this type of settlement. More-familiar concentrated villages, marked by uniform clustering of buildings, are found in the plains, particularly those given over to cereal cultivation. | |||
A belt of towns has grown up on the margins of the Subcarpathian region, and these often parallel another outer fringe of towns commanding the main trans-Carpathian passes. Examples of such “double towns” include Suceava and Bistrița, Făgăraș and Câmpulung, Sibiu and Râmnicu Vâlcea, Alba Iulia and Arad, and Cluj Napoca and Oradea. In contrast to Transylvania, which experienced considerable urban development during the Dacian and Roman periods, Moldavia did not begin to develop towns until the Middle Ages, when the old Moldavian capitals of Iași and Suceava had close commercial connections with the towns of Transylvania and derived benefit from trade passing between the Baltic and Black Sea ports. | |||
Ethnic Romanians traditionally inhabited the countryside, while the cities were home to minorities: Hungarians, Germans, Jews, Greeks, and Armenians. This pattern began to change in the 19th century with the start of industrialization, and ethnic Romanians have become the majority in the larger cities. | |||
*Demographic trends | |||
The substantial changes in the social composition of the population that took place in Romania as a result of increasing industrialization and urbanization were reflected in the rise of the working-class population. Similarly, the collectivization of agriculture transformed the rural population. Since World War II there has been a sharp rise in the proportion of the population that has received some kind of higher education. Differing rates of economic development in different parts of Romania have produced a movement toward towns and cities, largely for daily and seasonal work, so that less than half of the population lives in rural areas. The communist government sought to reduce migration across county boundaries by trying to ensure that each area had its share of development and that the benefits of modernization were spread throughout the country. They were only partially successful, and sharp regional contrasts persist. | |||
The population density of the country as a whole has doubled since 1900, though it is still lower than most central European states. The overall density figures, however, conceal considerable regional variation. Population densities are naturally highest in the towns, with the plains (up to elevations of some 700 feet [200 metres]) having the next highest density, especially in areas with intensive agriculture or a traditionally high birth rate (e.g., northern Moldavia and the “contact” zone with the Subcarpathians); areas at elevations of 700 to 2,000 feet (200 to 600 metres), rich in mineral resources, orchards, vineyards, and pastures, support the lowest densities. | |||
Since the 1990s the population of Romania itself has declined. Several factors have contributed to this downturn. Primarily, abortions and birth control were restricted under communist rule; after the revolution the restrictions were lifted, causing a plunge in the birth rate. Secondarily, a sharp decline in the standard of living and in the quality and availability of public health and medical facilities has leveled off life expectancy. The number of stillbirths and infant deaths, which had fallen significantly from the early 1970s to the early ’80s, rose in the late ’80s and remained high through the early 2000s. The proportion of the population under age 15, which was about one-third in the 1980s, had dropped to less than one-sixth by the early 21st century. These statistics have caused concern regarding the deterioration of Romania’s population. The lifting of emigration restrictions also resulted in a loss of population, especially among minorities and particularly ethnic Germans. Moreover, many Romanians, especially young adults, emigrated from Romania after 1989, searching for economic opportunities in western Europe and North America. | |||
==Economy of Romania== | ==Economy of Romania== | ||