Romania
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Romania,country of southeasternEurope. The national capital isBucharest. Romania was occupied by Soviet troops in 1944 and became a satellite of theUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in 1948. The country was under communist rule from 1948 until 1989, when theregime of Romanian leaderNicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown. Free elections were held in 1990. In 2004 the country joined theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and in 2007 it became a member of theEuropean Union (EU).
The Romanian landscape is approximately one-third mountainous and one-third forested, with the remainder made up of hills and plains. The climate is temperate and marked by four distinct seasons. Romania enjoys a considerable wealth of natural resources: fertile land for agriculture; pastures for livestock; forests that provide hard and soft woods; petroleum reserves; metals, including gold and silver in theApuseni Mountains; numerous rivers that supply hydroelectricity; and aBlack Sea coastline that is the site of both ports and resorts.
- Head Of Government:
- Prime Minister: Marcel Ciolacu
- Capital:
- Bucharest
- Population:
- (2025 est.) 19,079,000
- Currency Exchange Rate:
- 1 USD equals 4.664 Romanian new leu
- Head Of State:
- President: Klaus Iohannis
- Form Of Government:
- unitary republic with two legislative houses (Senate [136]; Chamber of Deputies [3291])
- Official Language:
- Romanian
- Official Religion:
- none
- Official Name:
- România (Romania)
- Total Area (Sq Km):
- 238,397
- Total Area (Sq Mi):
- 92,045
- Monetary Unit:
- (new) leu2 (RON; plural [new] lei)
- Population Rank:
- (2025) 69
- Population Projection 2030:
- 17,974,000
- Density: Persons Per Sq Mi:
- (2025) 207.3
- Density: Persons Per Sq Km:
- (2025) 80
- Urban-Rural Population:
- Urban: (2023) 52.1%
- Rural: (2023) 47.9%
- Life Expectancy At Birth:
- Male: (2022) 70.7 years
- Female: (2022) 78 years
- Literacy: Percentage Of Population Age 15 And Over Literate:
- Male: not available
- Female: not available
- Gni (U.S.$ ’000.000):
- (2023) 317,458
- Gni Per Capita (U.S.$):
- (2023) 16,660
- Includes a maximum of 18 elective seats for ethnic minorities.
- The leu was redenominated on July 1, 2005. As of that date 10,000 (old) lei (ROL) = 1 (new) leu (RON).
The Romanian peoplederive much of their ethnic and cultural character fromRoman influence, but this ancient identity has been reshaped continuously by Romania’s position astride major continental migration routes. Romanians regard themselves as the descendants of the ancient Romans who conquered southernTransylvania under the emperorTrajan in 105ce and of the Dacians who lived in the mountains north of the Danubian Plain and in the Transylvanian Basin. By the time of the Roman withdrawal under the emperorAurelian in 271, the Roman settlers and the Dacians had intermarried, resulting in a new nation. Both the Latin roots of theRomanian language and the Eastern Orthodox faith to which most Romanians adhere emerged from the mixture of these twocultures.
From the arrival of theHuns in the 5th century until the emergence of the principalities ofWalachia andMoldavia in the 14th century, the Romanian people virtually disappeared from written history. During this time Romania was invaded by great folk migrations and warriors on horseback who traveled across the Danubian Plain. It is believed that in the face of ceaseless violence the Romanians were forced to relocate, finding safety in theCarpathian Mountains. As military chiefHelmuth von Moltke observed: “Resistance having nearly always proven useless, the Romanians could no longer think of any other way of defense than flight.”
For the next 600 years the Romanian lands served as battlegrounds for their neighbours’ conflicting ambitions. The Romanians were unable to withstand the imperial pressures first from theByzantines and then from the Ottoman Turks to the south in Constantinople (now Istanbul), or later from theHabsburg empire to the west and fromRussia to the east.
In 1859 the principalities of Walachia and Moldavia were united, and in 1877 they proclaimed their independence from theOttoman Empire as the modern Romania. This was accompanied by a conversion from theCyrillic alphabet to the Latin and by an exodus of students who soughthigher education in western Europe, especiallyFrance.
Despite its late start as a European nation-state, Romania in the 20th century produced several world-renownedintellectuals, including composerGeorges Enesco, playwrightEugène Ionesco, philosopher Emil Cioran, religion historianMircea Eliade, and Nobel laureateGeorge E. Palade. On the eve ofWorld War II, journalist Rosa Goldschmidt Waldeck (Countess Waldeck) described her strongest impression of the Romanians:
Two thousand years of severe foreign masters,barbarian invasions,rapacious conquers, wicked princes, cholera, and earthquakes have given Rumanians a superb sense of the temporary and transitory quality of everything. Experience in survival has taught them that each fall may result in unforeseen opportunities and that somehow they always get on their feet again.