Romania's resident population standing at 19.186 million as of January 1, 2021

Romania's resident population was 19.186 million on January 1, 2021, down by 142,600 people from January 1, 2020, with the female population being in the majority, at 9.795 million, which is 51% of total, according to provisional data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

"The main cause of this decrease is a negative birth rate, as the number of deaths exceeded the number of live births by 120,273 persons," according to INS.

On January 1, 2021, the resident population in urban areas was 10.286 million, down 1.6% y-o-y. The female population as of January 1, 2021 was standing at 9.795 million people, down 0.7% y-o-y.

"Demographic aging has deepened since January 1, 2020, with an increase in the share of the elderly population (65 years and over) becoming noticeable. The demographic aging index increased from 120.8 (on January 1, 2020) to 123.9 elderly people to 100 young people (as of January 1, 2021)," according to INS.

The share of the population aged 0-14 years in total decreased by 0.1 percentage points (from 15.7% in 2020 to 15.6% on January 1, 2021), while the share of the population aged 65 and over in total the population posted an increase by 0.4 percentage points (from 18.9% in 2020 to 19.3% on January 1, 2021). Thus, the dependency ratio increased from 53.0 (as of January 1, 2020) to 53.6 young and elderly people per 100 adults (as of January 1, 2021).

INS mentions that Romania continues to be a country of emigration, which is the second main cause of the country's dwindling population, with the number of emigrants exceeding the number of immigrants by almost 29,000 people.

In 2020, men emigrated to a greater extent than women (54.1%). Also among immigrants, men were in the majority (60.5%).

According to INS, the resident population includes all persons (Romanian citizenship, foreign or stateless) with a habitual residence in Romania for a period of at least 12 months.