Romania ETHNIC STRUCTURE
Rechanneled and deepened Dîmbovita River, one of many 1980s
projects transforming the landscape of central Bucharest
Courtesy Scott Edelman
Figure 4. Ethnic Hungarian Minority in Romania in the 1980s
Countryside in Saxon German region of Transylvania
Courtesy Scott Edelman
Romania derives much of its ethnic diversity from its
geographic position astride major continental migration
routes.
According to 1987 data, 89.1 percent of the population is
Romanian,
and more than twenty separate ethnic minorities account
for the
remaining 12 percent. Although many of these minorities
are small
groups, the Hungarian minority of about 1.7
million--estimated by
some Western experts at 2-2.5 million--represents 7.8
percent of
the total population and is the largest national minority
in
Europe. The next largest component of the population is
the ethnic
Germans, who constitute up to 1.5 percent of the total
population.
There are also significant numbers of Ukrainians, Serbs,
and
Croats, as well as a Jewish minority estimated by Western
observers
at between 20,000 and 25,000. Although not officially
recognized as
a distinct ethnic minority, there is a sizable Gypsy
population.
The 1977 census documented only 230,000, but some Western
estimates
put the Gypsy element at between 1 million and 2 million,
suggesting that Gypsies might be actually the second
largest
minority after the Hungarians.
Data as of July 1989
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