The first
\nserious warning came in December, when the National Statistics Institute
\npublished Romania’s demographic annual report. The report, which contains
\nstatistical data about the number and structure of Romania’s population, as
\nwell as its natural and migratory dynamics, shows that Romania loses several
\nthousand inhabitants every month. Along with its modernisation, the country is also facing negative
\nphenomena, which western societies first saw decades ago. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The number of
\nchildren per family is on the decrease, as women give birth at an older age,
\nthe number of marriages has been dropping and that of divorces is on the rise.
\nThe director of the Romanian Academy Centre for Demographic Research Vasile
\nGhetau said on Tuesday that in 2015 the fertility rate reached its lowest level
\nin the last 50 years. He also reiterated that the death rate had been exceeding
\nthe birth rate for quite a few years. Depopulation has accelerated in the last
\nquarter century since the fall of the
\ncommunist regime, as a result of the opening of the borders, which until then
\nhad been closed, which has allowed millions of Romanian citizens to leave the
\ncountry and settle abroad. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The migratory hemorrhage appears to have slowed
\ndown recently, so the number of people leaving Romania no longer exceeds that
\nof people coming back. However, depopulation still continues as a result of
\nmigration, because the people who have emigrated are in the 25 to 34 age
\nbracket, which affects the birth rate. Since 1989, Romania’s population dropped
\nfrom 23.2 million to 19.8 million, thus reverting the tendency seen in the
\nprevious decades, when, as a result of the 1966 abortion ban, the population increased by 26%. Specialists are
\nof course opposed to such brutal intervention of the communist state in family
\nlife and underline that such immediate results can only be obtained in a
\ntotalitarian system. They point out, however, that there are countries in the
\nWest, like France, where population has grown by 13% in the last 25 years. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Experts say Romanian families should have more than two children for the
\ndemographic decline to be reversed. This figure, explains Vasile Ghetau, should
\nbe maintained for at least half a century, through measures to support
\nfamilies, provide child care services, reduce child mortality and increase life
\nexpectancy. State funds allocated for the implementation of such measures
\nshould grow by 10% every year. For the
\ntime being, a new law has been passed that eliminates, starting on July 1st,
\nthe child rearing benefit cap, which
\nuntil now stood at 760 euros. From now, the allowance will account for 85% of
\nincomes. The experts from the Centre for Demographic Research say the measures
\nto increase birth rates should be accompanied by a health ministry programme to
\nreduce death rates. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Increasingly vocal in public debates, demographic experts have again warned about the country’s progressive depopulation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":68275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-68274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n