The share of those who say they are proud to be Romanian has increased by 12% over the past 10 years, and those who say they fly the tricolor on National Day by 23%, according to an INSCOP survey commissioned by the News. ro. In addition, more than 90% of respondents believe that being Romanian means knowing the Romanian language, the same percentage believes that being Romanian means having Romanian citizenship.

More than a quarter of Romanians would agree to move the National Day to a warmer time of year, the poll also shows. “Comparative data collected by INSCOP Research in 2013, respectively in 2023, show very clearly that over the last decade, Romanians’ sense of patriotism has strengthened significantly for all socio-demographic categories,” notes INSCOP Research Director Remus Štefureac.

Proud to be Romanian

95% of respondents say they are proud to be Romanian (compared to 83% in 2013), while 4.3% say the opposite (compared to 12.8% in 2013). 0.7% do not know or do not answer this question (compared to 4.2% in 2013).

There are no significant differences by socio-demographic categories between the respondents regarding this subject, according to the socio-demographic analysis.

Planting the tricolor on the national day

49.7% of Romanians use the tricolor at home on the national day (compared to 26.3% in 2013), while 49.9% say they do not have this habit (compared to 71.5% in 2013). 0.5% do not know or do not answer this question (compared to 2.2% in 2013).

Socio-demographic analysis shows that people with primary education, residents of South Muntenia and Center regions, tend to wear the tricolor at home on the national day in a higher percentage than other socio-demographic categories. People with higher education and residents of the South-West Oltenia region say that they do not have this habit in a significantly higher proportion than the average.

Transfer of the national day to the warm season

26.4% of Romanians would agree with moving the national day to a warmer time of year (compared to 29.6% in 2013). 69.7% would disagree (compared to 55.3% in 2013) and 3.9 did not know or did not answer (compared to 15.1% in 2013).

“Individuals with primary education and residents of the North-West region would agree with moving the national holiday to a warmer time of the year in a significantly higher proportion than average. People with a higher education, gray-collar workers and people with high incomes are socio-demographic categories, among which the highest percentage of opponents of such a step was recorded”, – the results of the socio-demographic analysis.

What does it mean to be Romanian?

According to 93.6% of respondents, being Romanian means speaking Romanian, while 5.7% reject this opinion and 0.7% do not know or do not answer.

For 90.6% of respondents, being Romanian means having Romanian citizenship, while 8.7% disagree with this statement and 0.7% do not know or do not answer.

Having a family with Romanian roots is a condition for being Romanian for 77.2% of respondents, while 21.5% disagree with this opinion and 1.3% do not know or do not answer.

For 64% of respondents, being Romanian means being an Orthodox Christian. 34.8% reject such an idea and 1.2% do not know or do not answer the question.

Socio-demographic analysis shows that people with primary education, workers and residents of the South-Eastern region are more likely than the rest of the population to believe that being Romanian means speaking Romanian. People with primary education, residents of the Northeast region, and people with very low incomes believe that being Romanian means having a family with Romanian roots at a significantly higher percentage than other socio-demographic categories.

“Among people with primary education, passively inactive and people with very low incomes, significantly higher than average shares of those who believe that being Romanian means being an Orthodox Christian are recorded. People with primary education, residents of the South Muntenia region and residents of small towns believe more than other socio-demographic categories that being Romanian means having Romanian citizenship”, the results of the socio-demographic analysis.

“Comparative data collected by INSCOP Research in 2013, respectively in 2023, show very clearly that over the last decade, Romanians’ patriotic sentiments have significantly increased for all socio-demographic categories. The share of citizens who say they are proud to be Romanian has increased by 12% over the last 10 years, the share of those who say they fly the tricolor on the national day has increased by 23%, and the commitment to the date of December 1 remains solid in conditions, when only 26% would like to move the public day to a warmer time of the year (three percent less than 10 years ago). For the vast majority of Romanians (over 90%), being Romanian means speaking the Romanian language and having Romanian citizenship,” explains Remus Tefureac, director of INSCOP Research.

The survey was conducted by INSCOP Research on behalf of News.ro. The data were collected from November 20 to 27 by the CATI method (telephone interviews), using a questionnaire. The size of the simple stratified sample is 1100 people, representative of significant socio-demographic categories (gender, age, profession) for the non-institutionalized population of Romania aged 18 and over. The maximum allowable data error is ± 3% with a confidence level of 95%.