Quick Facts

Recent History

During the Second World War Jews and Gypsies from Romania were deported and murdered. In 1965 Nicolae Ceausescu became ruler of Romania. Although Ceausescu had an independent foreign policy he ruled Romania with a rod of iron. Ceausescu was determined to increase heavy industry in Romania but ordinary people suffered abject poverty. They also suffered terrible repression.

The Communist regime in Romania suddenly collapsed in 1989. In December demonstrations took place in Timisoara. On 21 December Ceausescu was booed by a crowd in Bucharest and demonstrations followed. The next day Ceausescu appeared on the balcony of the Central Committee Building but he was forced to escape by helicopter. Ceausescu’s fellow Communists deserted him and he was arrested. He and his wife were shot on 25 December 1989.

Romania then faced a difficult transition from Communism to democracy and a market economy. Romania joined NATO in 2004. Romania also joined the EU in 2007. Romania suffered badly in the recession of 2009. However, Romania recovered from 2011. Today the economy is growing steadily. Today the population of Romania is 21.5 million.

Religion

Romania is a secular state and has no state religion. An overwhelming majority of the population identify themselves as Christians. At the country’s 2011 census, 81.0% of respondents identified as Orthodox Christians belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Other denominations include Protestantism (6.2%), Roman Catholicism (4.3%), and Greek Catholicism (0.8%). From the remaining population, 195,569 people belong to other Christian denominations or have another religion, which includes 64,337 Muslims (mostly of Turkish and Tatar ethnicity) and 3,519 Jewish (Jews once constituted 4% of the Romanian population—728,115 persons in the 1930 census). Moreover, 39,660 people have no religion or are atheist, whilst the religion of the rest is unknown.

Government

Romania’s political framework is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic where the Prime Minister is the head of government while the President represents the country internationally, signs some decrees, approves laws promulgated by parliament and nominations as head of state. Romania has a multi-party system, with legislative power vested in the government and the two chambers of Parliament: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Romania as a “flawed democracy” in 2016.

 * Much of the information contained above come from Wikipedia

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