In 10 years, Romania lost more than a million inhabitants. Preliminary data from the latest population census in 2021 paint a bleak picture of the country’s future. Against the backdrop of an aging population, a declining birth rate and an out-migration phenomenon that has not yet abated, Romania is moving towards the most pessimistic scenario: the country is becoming increasingly empty, with too few workers and too many retirees.

However, the demographic decline predicted for the coming decades can be prevented, according to sociologists and representatives of civil society. This requires concrete measures, both in the short and medium term.

Among them is the deliberate and structured opening of the gates to migrants from poor countries, as well as the “import” and adaptation of public policies already successfully implemented in Western European countries, which also face low birth rates and aging populations.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Romania now has a permanent population of just over 19 million inhabitants.

For comparison, according to the 2011 census, Romania had more than 20 million inhabitants. The given data did not surprise experts who expected such a result. According to Dumitru Sandu, a sociologist and professor at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Bucharest, the decrease compared to the 2021 census was similar in amplitude to that recorded in the 2011 census.

Read more at Panorama.ro