Romania is situated in the south-eastern part of central Europe. It borders the Republic of Moldova to the east, Ukraine to the north, Hungary and Serbia to the west, Bulgaria to the south and the Black Sea to the south-east (Fig1.1). Most of the border with Bulgaria and a large part of the border with Serbia are formed by the Danube River. The Romanian coast of the Black Sea stretches for 245 km, enabling connections with countries in the Black Sea and Mediterranean basins.
Fig1.1
Romania’s climate is temperate. Its terrain lies on three main levels, each constituting about a third of the total area: the highest level is the Carpathians (highest peak: 2544 m); the middle level corresponds to the sub-Carpathian hills and plateaus; and the lowest level contains the Danube Delta and other plains.
Romania is the eighth largest country in the EU in terms of surface area (237 500 km2) and the seventh largest in terms of population (19.9 million people in 2014; Table1.1). The population has fallen by 14.2% since 1990, due to a decline in fertility and birth, relatively high death rates and outward migration.
Table 1.1
A 2014 OECD report on international migration estimated that in 2011 there were 3 million Romanians working abroad (OECD, 2014b). In 2014, there were 98 586 legal immigrants working or studying in Romania. Out of these, 57 471 were third country nationals and 41 115 were EU/EEA citizens (IOM, 2015). Temporary stay permits constitute 83% of all stay permits, with family ties/reunification being the main reason for stay (OECD, 2014b).
An increase in the number of refugees and asylum seekers was observed after 2009. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were 1069 refugees and 398 asylum seekers in Romania in 2009, and 2426 refugees and 138 asylum seekers in June 2015 (UNHCR, 2010, 2015).
According to the latest census (2011), 88.9% of the population was of Romanian origin. There is also a small ethnic minority (6.5% of the population) of Hungarian origin (born in Romania). The Roma population accounts officially for 3.3% of the total population and other nationalities for the remaining 1.3% (National Institute of Statistics, 2013). The Roma population is characterized by high poverty rate (75% live in poverty), high unemployment rate (36%), low education level (more than half of adult Roma have not completed the minimum compulsory level of education) and low rates of social health insurance coverage (51% for the Roma compared to 85% for the non-Roma population) (Ministry of European Funds, 2014; UNDP, 2012). One of the reasons for lower social health insurance coverage is not having an identity card, which precludes the Roma people from enrolling into the social security system (see section 3.3.1).
The official language is Romanian, but other languages are also spoken. In 2011, 86.5% of the population declared to be Orthodox, 4.6% Roman Catholic and 3.2% Protestant (National Institute of Statistics, 2013).
In terms of the attainment of higher education levels (ISCED 5 to 8, as defined by the 1997 International Standard Classification of Education), in 2015 Romania was placed last (together with Italy) among EU countries, with only 17.2% of its population aged 25–64 years achieving higher educational levels, while the EU average was 30.1% (Eurostat, 2016).