The “youngest” county in Romania is Iași, with an average age of 39, and the “oldest” is Teleorman, where the average age is close to 47, according to the National Institute of Statistics. processed by HotNews.ro.

If we look at the share of people over 65 in the total population, the “youngest” is Ilfovul (elderly people make up 13% of the population), and the oldest is Teleorman (more than a quarter residents over 65).

With increasing life expectancy, declining birth rates and a negative migration balance (more Romanians are emigrating than immigrants are arriving, amid the approaching retirement of the baby boom generation, the pressure on healthcare, social security and pension costs will increase at a – consistent rate .

There is already a huge age gap between counties.

In Europe, Italy is the oldest country, with elderly people accounting for just over 23% of the total population. Teleorman has over 25% elderly people.

All countries without exception are aging: both those with high GDP per capita and the poorest. We also see an interesting phenomenon: while intuition would tell you that wealthier regions have lower death rates and tend to attract younger workers from other counties, while poorer regions have higher birth rates and should have lower median ages, the reality contradicts this assumption. .

Braila and Teleorman have a higher proportion of elderly people than any other European country. See here the share of elderly people in European countries.

Districts where every fifth resident is older than 65 years: Teleorman (average age – 46.5 years, share of elderly people – 25.88%), Valcha (45.5 years, share of elderly people – 22.3% ), Braila (45.1 years old, the share of elderly people – 23.1%). ), Hunedoara (45 years, proportion of elderly people 22.65%), Ault (average age 44.7 years and proportion of elderly people 21.65%), Caras-Severin (44.4 years and proportion of elderly people almost 23%)

The youngest counties: Iasi, Ilfov and Suceava, the average age of whose residents is less than 40 years.

In addition, an aging population makes it difficult for local governments, whose incomes depend on revenue from local taxes and fees, to cope with the fiscal pressure on taxpayers. In a very old county like Teleorman, for example, you can’t increase the taxes applied to the population (mostly pensioners) and you have to tax the few businesses that have survived in the area.

And since age has become a criterion for political options (it is known that older people mostly prefer left-wing decisions, while young people prefer right-wing ones), this demographic difference becomes significant in the upcoming elections.