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Travel to Romania — Unbiased reviews and
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President: Traian Basescu (2007)
Prime Minister: Calin
Popescu-Tariceanu (2004)
Current government officials
Land area: 88,934 sq mi (230,339 sq km);
total area: 91,699 sq mi (237,500 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 22,276,056
(growth rate: –0.1%); birth rate: 10.7/1000; infant mortality
rate: 24.6/1000; life expectancy: 71.9; density per sq mi: 250
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Bucharest, 2,210,800 (metro. area), 1,906,800
(city proper)
Other large cities: Iasi, 320,000;
Cluj-Napoca, 316,400; Timisoara, 316,100; Constanta, 309,000;
Craiova, 301,100, Galati, 297,100; Brasov, 282,500
Monetary unit: lei
Languages:
Romanian 91% (official), Hungarian 6.7%, Romany
(Gypsy) 1.1%, other 1.2%
Ethnicity/race:
Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Roma (Gyspy)
2.5%, Ukrainian 0.3%, German 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, Turkish 0.2%, other
0.4% (2002)
Religions:
Eastern Orthodox (including all
sub-denominations) 86.8%, Protestant (various denominations
including Reformate and Pentecostal) 7.5%, Roman Catholic 4.7%,
other (mostly Muslim) and unspecified 0.9%, none 0.1% (2002
census)
Literacy rate: 98% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $245.5billion; per capita $11,400. Real growth rate:
6%. Inflation: 4.8%. Unemployment: 4.1%. Arable
land: 39%. Agriculture: wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets,
sunflower seed, potatoes, grapes; eggs, sheep. Labor force:
9.35 million (2007 est.); agriculture 31.6%, industry 30.7%,
services 37.7% (2004). Industries: textiles and footwear,
light machinery and auto assembly, mining, timber, construction
materials, metallurgy, chemicals, food processing, petroleum
refining. Natural resources: petroleum (reserves declining),
timber, natural gas, coal, iron ore, salt, arable land, hydropower.
Exports: $39.62 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): textiles and
footwear, metals and metal products, machinery and equipment,
minerals and fuels, chemicals, agricultural products. Imports:
$63.16 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and equipment,
fuels and minerals, chemicals, textile and products, basic metals,
agricultural products. Major trading partners: Italy,
Germany, France, Turkey, UK, Russia (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 4.231 million (2006); mobile cellular: 17.4 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: 698 (frequency type NA) (2006).
Radios: 7.2 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 623 (plus 200 repeaters)(2006). Televisions:
5.25 million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 1.406
million (2007). Internet users: 5.063 million (2006).
Transportation: Railways: total: 11,385
km (3,888 km electrified) (2002). Highways: total: 198,817
km; paved: 60,043 km (including 228 km of expressways); unpaved:
138,774 km (2004). Waterways: 1,731 km (2006). Ports and
harbors: Braila, Constanta, Galati, Mangalia, Sulina, Tulcea.
Airports: 65 (2002).
International disputes: has not resolved
claims to Ukrainian-administered Zmyinyy (Snake) Island and Black
Sea maritime boundary despite ongoing talks based on 1997 friendship
treaty to find a solution in two years; joint boundary commission is
rectifying boundary with Bulgaria based on shifts in Danube since
last delimitation in 1920; Hungary has yet to amend status law
extending special social and cultural benefits to ethnic Hungarians
in Romania, who protest the law.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Romania is in southeast Europe and is slightly smaller than Oregon. The
Carpathian Mountains divide Romania's upper half from north to south and
connect near the center of the country with the Transylvanian Alps,
running east and west. North and west of these ranges lies the
Transylvanian plateau, and to the south and east are the plains of
Moldavia and Walachia. In its last 190 mi (306 km), the Danube River flows
through Romania only. It enters the Black Sea in northern Dobruja, just
south of the border with Ukraine.
Government
Republic.
History
Most of Romania was the Roman province of Dacia from about A.D. 100 to 271. From the 3rd to the 12th century,
wave after wave of barbarian conquerors overran the native Daco-Roman
population. Subjection to the first Bulgarian Empire (8th–10th
century) brought Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the Romanians. In the
11th century, Transylvania was absorbed into the Hungarian empire. By the
16th century, the main Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Walachia
had become satellites within the Ottoman Empire, although they retained
much independence. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, they
became Russian protectorates. The nation became a kingdom in 1881 after
the Congress of Berlin.
At the start of World War I, Romania proclaimed its neutrality, but it
later joined the Allied side and in 1916 declared war on the Central
Powers. The armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, gave Romania vast territories from
Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, doubling its size. The areas
acquired included Bessarabia, Transylvania, and Bukovina. The Banat, a
Hungarian area, was divided with Yugoslavia. King Carol II was crowned in
1930 and transformed the throne into a royal dictatorship. In 1938, he
abolished the democratic constitution of 1923. In 1940, the country was
reorganized along Fascist lines, and the Fascist Iron Guard became the
nucleus of the new totalitarian party. On June 27, the Soviet Union
occupied Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. King Carol II dissolved
parliament, granted the new prime minister, Ion Antonescu, full power,
abdicated his throne, and went into exile.
Romania subsequently signed the Axis Pact on Nov. 23, 1940, and the
following June joined in Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, reoccupying
Bessarabia. About 270,000 Jews were massacred in Fascist Romania.
Following the invasion of Romania by the Red Army in Aug. 1944, King
Michael led a coup that ousted the Antonescu government. An armistice with
the Soviet Union was signed in Moscow on Sept. 12, 1944. A
Communist-dominated government bloc won elections in 1946, Michael
abdicated on Dec. 30, 1947, and in 1955 Romania joined the Warsaw Treaty
Organization and the United Nations.
Running a neo-Stalinist police state from 1967–1989, Nicolae
Ceausescu wound the iron curtain tightly around Romania, turning a
moderately prosperous country into one at the brink of starvation. To
repay his $10 billion foreign debt in 1982, he ransacked the Romanian
economy of everything that could be exported, leaving the country with
desperate shortages of food, fuel, and other essentials. An army-assisted
rebellion in Dec. 1989 led to Ceausescu's overthrow, trial, and
execution.
An ex-Communist, Ion Iliescu of the National Salvation Front, served as
president from 1990–1995. Emil Constantinescu of the Democratic
Convention Party was president from 1996–2000. The post-Communist
governments' conflicted and halfhearted attempts to change to a
free-market economy have been largely unrealized. Growing dissatisfaction
with the government's inefficiencies and economic policies led to a wave
of protests by workers, students, and others that peaked in 1997, and
again in 1999. In 2000 former president Iliescu returned to power with a
landslide victory, easily defeating a xenophobic nationalist opponent.
Discrimination against the Magyars (ethnic Hungarians) and the Roma
(Gypsies) continues, fueled by several ultranationalist political
parties.
Romania joined NATO in 2004, and in 2005 the EU approved the entry of
Romania in 2007. Final acceptance into the EU was based on a number of
reforms, including increased law enforcement and environmental measures
and the protection of the rights of the Roma minority.
In April 2007, Parliament voted to suspend President Traian Basescu,
citing abuse of power. Tension had been growing between Basescu and the
government of Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu. The president of the Senate,
Nicolae Vacaroiu, was named acting president. In a May referendum, 74% of
the electorate voted against impeaching Basescu, and he was reinstated as
president. Observers saw the vote as an endorsement of Basescu's agenda of
reform and rooting out corruption.
Following inconclusive general elections in November 2008, economist
and former prime minister Theodor Stolojan was asked by President Basescu
to form a new cabinet. On December 15, Stolojan withdrew from the race and
Emil Boc was named prime minister.
See also Encyclopedia: Romania.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Romania
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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