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$Unique_ID{bob00426}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Romania
Chapter 3B.   Population}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Eugene K. Keefe}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{population
country
million
river
years
percent
rate
lines
average
increased
see
tables
}
$Date{1972}
$Log{See Table 1.*0042601.tab
See Table 2.*0042602.tab
}
Title:       Romania
Book:        Romania, A Country Study
Author:      Eugene K. Keefe
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1972

Chapter 3B.   Population

     The area approximating that defined by the 1971 boundaries of the country
had a population estimated at about 8.2 million in 1860. Thirty years later it
had increased to about 10 million. Growth began to accelerate slightly after
1908, with periods of greatest increases between 1930 and 1941 and between
1948 and 1956, until it reached an estimated 20.6 million in 1971.

     The 1971 estimate was derived from the 1966 census and projected from
vital statistics compiled locally through 1970. On this basis the estimated
annual rate of growth was 1.3 percent, exceeded in Europe only by that of
Albania. Density of the population was 224 persons per square mile. Projected
at the 1971 growth rate, the population in 1985 would be 23.3 million and it
would take fifty-four years for the population of the country to double.

     The 1971 growth rate, however, may not be maintained. Legislation enacted
in 1966 stringently restricted abortions and discouraged birth control
practices, resulting in an increased birth rate for the next few years, but
by 1971 there were indications that the rate was again declining.
Unofficially, it is expected that the population will reach only 25.75 million
by the year 2000, or about 27 percent more than in 1970. The projection is
based on a growth rate of less than that of the 1970-71 period. It is expected
to average about 1.1 percent for the 1971-75 five-year period and to decrease
thereafter, resulting in an average of between 0.7 and 0.8 percent over the
entire period. Moreover, the increase is expected to be far greater in the
over-sixty age group and to provide only about 14 percent more workers in the
productive age brackets between fifteen and fifty-nine.

     In 1970 the birth rate, at 23.3 births per 1,000 of the population, was
also exceeded only by Albania's in all of Europe. The rate of infant
mortality, at 54.9 deaths during the first year of life for each 1,000 live
births, was slightly lower than those of Yugoslavia and Portugal and was
exceeded significantly only by that of Albania. The death rate, at 10.1 per
1,000 was very close to the overall European rate of ten per 1,000.

     According to the 1971 official estimate there were 10.1 million males
and 10.4 million females, or 102.8 females for every 100 males in the
population. Males outnumber females slightly in the childhood years and are
the majority sex in each five-year segment of the population to about the age
of thirty. Females outnumber males in the thirty to thirty-four age group,
after which there is near numerical equality between ages thirty-five and
forty-four. Females attain a clear majority beyond age forty-five. Female life
expectancy, at 70.5 years, is approximately four years greater than that of
males.

     The population group with ages from fifty to fifty-four had both a low
overall figure and an abnormally low percentage of males (see table 1). The
low total reflected a low birth rate during World War I years; the abnormal
sex distribution reflected World War II combat losses. The low total in the
twenty-five to twenty-nine group resulted from the low birth rate during World
War II, and the low figure for the five-to-nine age group reflected the fewer
number of parents in the group twenty years its senior and their
disinclination to have children because of low incomes and inadequate housing.

     The size of the five-to-nine age group was of concern to the country's
economists because it will provide a smaller than desirable augmentation to
the labor force at the end of the 1970 decade and for the early 1980s. The
seemingly much larger group that was under five years of age in 1971, on the
other hand, would appear on the surface to more than compensate for the
smaller one preceding it. The country's economists, however, did not believe
that an alleviation of the chronic shortage of people in the most productive
working ages would occur during the twentieth century.

     Aside from natural growth and additions and subtractions of territories
and their occupants, the country's population has been comparatively stable.
It has been affected to a lesser degree than others in eastern Europe by
migrations during and after World War II, probably losing between 300,000 and
400,000 persons in various resettlement and population exchange movements. The
largest emigration involved Jews to Israel. Israeli data show an average of
about 30,000 immigrants from Romania during the three immediate postwar years,
and Jewish people accounted for a major share of all emigration between then
and the late 1960s.

[See Table 1.: Romanian, Population Structure, by Age and Sex, 1971 Estimate
(in thousands)]

     Within the country the greatest shift of people has been from rural to
urban areas. The rural population grew by about 0.5 million, from 11.9 million
to 12.4 million, between 1945 and 1971. During the same period urban
population increased by about 3.5 million, from 4.7 million to about 8.24
million, and has become about 40 percent of the total. Officials anticipate
that the rural population will stabilize and that most future increases will
be to the towns and cities.

     Of the 60 percent of the people who still live in small villages and
settlements, most depend upon agriculture for their livelihood. Isolated farms
and dwellings prevail in the more remote hills and mountains, and life in
those areas has been little affected by industrialization of the country or by
the collectivization of agricultural land, which has been accomplished in
most of the better farming areas.

     Older villages most typically have individual family houses, with farm
buildings adjacent and with considerable separation between houses. In areas
that have been collectivized there has been some effort to remove buildings
from productive land and to nucleate the villages.

     Population is most dense in the central portion of Walachia, centering
on, and west of, Bucharest and Ploiesti and along the Siretul River in
Moldavia. Southwestern Walachia and central and northwestern Transylvania are
also more densely settled than the average for the country. The area around
Dobruja, lands of high elevation, and marshlands along the lower Danube River
are the most sparsely settled areas.

LIVING CONDITIONS

     According to semiofficial Romanian sources, the national income increased
by six times during the twenty-year period between 1950 and 1970, and real
wages, by 2.7 times. Between 1966 and 1970 improved economic conditions and a
broader based industry had created about 800,000 new jobs, most of them in
the industrial sector.

     Increases in national income have been accompanied by increased outlays
for social and cultural programs. The 1970 allocations for such programs were
ten times greater than in 1950 and amounted to 27.5 percent of the total
national budget.

     Housing, production of consumer items, and changes in food consumption
had also improved. Between 1966 and 1970 about 345,000 state-funded apartments
and about 315,000 privately built dwellings became available. New facilities
for production of automobiles, furniture, wearing apparel, television sets,
and other domestic electrical appliances increased output in these areas by
about seven times that of 1950. Foods with high nutritive value were consumed
in larger quantities. Consumption of milk, garden vegetables, fruit, eggs,
and fish nearly doubled between 1966 and 1970. More meat and cheese were also
eaten, but the increase in their consumption was less spectacular.

     Efforts on behalf of public health were reflected in increasing the life
expectancy from forty-two years in 1932 to a figure that was more than 60
percent greater in 1970. Additional and better equipped hospitals and other
medical facilities contributed to this, as did more emphasis on public
sanitation and increased numbers of doctors and medical assistants. In 1970
there was a ratio of one physician for every 700 inhabitants, which was near
the overall European average.

     Despite an impressive record of achievements in the production of
industrial goods, the standard of living-with the exception of Albania's and
Portugal's-was probably the lowest in Europe in 1971. During the preceding
twenty years production of consumer goods was held down, while heavy capital
investment was encouraged. This was deliberate economic practice calculated
to be of maximum benefit to the country in time but not intended to produce
the greatest immediate results.

     The rent for an ordinary three-room apartment in 1971 was about one-third
of the average worker's monthly wages; the cost of a new automobile was about
forty times his monthly income. Housing area was small, the countrywide
average being about eighty-two square feet of living space per person.
Although about 140,000 urban apartment units became available in 1969 and
similar numbers were programmed for succeeding years, the housing situation
was worse in cities than in small towns and rural areas.

     Commentary on the lot of the consumer varies widely, frequently to the
point of direct contradiction. Visitors that have had a less than totally
favorable impression of the country report that food items-even the common
staples, such as eggs, cheese, and sausage-are not always available and that,
when they are, purchasers wait in long lines. Because food items are often
available only in small shops individually specializing in milk, cheese and
sausage, or vegetables and eggs, for example, the mere task of buying food is
a time-consuming undertaking. Persons disenchanted with the situation also
complain that, although poor harvests in 1968 and 1969 and floods in 1970
contributed further to food shortages, much was still exported during those
years. In 1971 the government reiterated its plans to devote primary attention
to the development of its heavy industrial base. Plans at that time, they
alleged, would discourage increased production of consumer goods through
1975 at the least.

TRANSPORTATION

Railroads

     Romania's early rail lines were developed largely in relation to external
points rather than to serve local needs. Until World War I the one major trunk
line ran south and east of the Carpathians from western Walachia to northern
Moldavia. Feeder lines and branches connected to it, but there was little
early construction in the marshy areas near the Danube River, and only one
bridge, at Cernavoda, crossed it. Transylvania, not yet part of the country,
was linked to the old provinces by only one line across the Carpathians.
Total route mileage was about 2,200 miles.

     Hungary had developed lines connecting Budapest with Transylvania and
branch lines within that province. When the area was annexed in 1918, Romania
inherited the existing railroads and set about linking them more
advantageously with the rest of the country. Most of the modern system was
completed by 1938, but route mileage was increased by about another 10 percent
after World War II. Late construction included another bridge over the Danube
River, this time at Giurgiu, south of Bucharest (see fig. 4).

     The system probably attained its maximum mileage in 1967, when it totaled
almost 6,900 route-miles, all but about 400 of them standard gauge. About ten
miles of line were retired during 1968 and 1969, and other little-used feeder
lines will probably be abandoned as it becomes more practical to carry small
loads over short distances by truck.

     Railroads transported nearly ten times as much freight in 1969, measured
in ton-miles, as did the highways. Their average load was carried a greater
distance, however, and motor transport actually handled a larger volume of
cargo (see table 2). During 1969 the railroads also carried over 300 million
passengers, for an average trip distance of thirty-two miles.

     The Romanian State Railroads, directed by the Ministry of Transportation,
operates all but a few minor lines and, in 1969, had about 147,000 employees.
As steam locomotives are retired, they are being replaced by diesels. Only a
little more than 100 route-miles have been electrified. Officials expect that
roads and motor vehicles will take increasing percentages of short-haul cargo
and short-trip passenger traffic. Airlines may cut somewhat into the
long-distance passenger traffic, but the railroads are expected to remain
important for both their freight and passenger services.

[See Table 2.: Use of Transportation Facilities in Romania, 1950, 1960, and
1969]

Roads

     Of the 47,800 miles of road, in 1969 about 6,000 miles-or 14 percent-were
considered modernized. A little more than one-third had gravel or crushed
stone to harden them, and almost exactly one-half had unimproved dirt
surfaces.

     About 7,600 miles were nationally maintained and included the greater
portion-5,200 miles-of those in the modernized, improved category. Only about
1,400 miles of the local roads were modernized, and less than one-half of them
had hardened surfaces. According to government planning reports, the road
network is considered adequate in size, and all that can be allocated to it
will be applied to its modernization. Motor transport was nearly neglible
until after World War II, but between 1950 and 1969 it assumed importance that
rivaled the railroads in both cargo and passenger traffic.

Waterways

     Nearly 1,500 miles of the rivers are considered navigable. All of the
Danube-over 900 miles-that is within or along the southern border of the
country is navigable and, in fact, connects the Black Sea and Romania with all
points upstream-through Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria to
Ulm in West Germany. The Prut, flowing along much of the eastern border with
the Soviet Union, accounts for most of the remaining navigable mileage. Other
streams are useful in some degree for timber rafting and for floating
agricultural products downstream. Rapid currents in hilly sections, silting
and meandering streambeds in the lowlands, and fog and ice in winter months,
however, limit the commercial usefulness of the rivers. Ice stops traffic on
the Danube River for an average of more than one month per year and on the
other streams from two to three months.

     The country's topography does not lend itself to the development of an
extensive system of canals. There are short canals in the western lowlands.
Two of them connect to the Tisza River in Yugoslavia but, as with this pair,
further development of the waterways in this portion of the country would be
economically advantageous only when they connected to points in Hungary or
Yugoslavia. Most of the northern and central regions are hilly or mountainous.

     Cargo shipped on rivers and canals in 1969 was less than 1 percent of
that carried by the other transport systems, but most of it was transported
for relatively long distances along the Danube River. Passengers carried
constituted an even more minute percentage of the total and, because the
largest numbers of them rode river ferries, the relative passenger mileage
percentage was even lower.

Airlines

     Commercial aviation is altogether state owned and is operated by an
office in the Department of Automotive, Maritime, and Air Transportation that,
with the Department of Railroads, is part of the Ministry of Transportation.
Romanian Air Transport-always referred to in common and in most official usage
as TAROM, derived from Transporturi Aeriene Romane-serves a dozen or more
cities in the country and contacts about twenty national capitals outside the
country. These include Moscow, all of the capitals of the Warsaw Treaty
Organization (Warsaw Pact) member nations, and about a dozen capitals in
Western Europe and the Middle East. Service to nearly all of the external
points consists of no more than one round trip flight weekly to each. Domestic
service has expanded steadily since 1950 but varies throughout the year to
provide more frequent trips during the holiday and tourist seasons.

     The line carries some cargo but an insignificant amount when compared
with other modes of transportation. It has, however, begun to carry a more
significant number of passengers. This traffic increased from less than 40,000
in 1950 to about 780,000 in 1969. Each year since 1965 it has carried
approximately 100,000 more passengers than in the year preceding.

Pipelines

     Most liquid petroleum products and natural gas are moved via pipeline.
The largest network of liquid lines serves the large oilfield in the Ploiesti
area and the smaller one in west-central Walachia. They connect the fields
with refineries and transport the refined products to Danube River ports and
to Constanta on the Black Sea coast. Lines also transfer crude oil from the
Moldavian oilfield to its refineries, but there were no lines in 1970 to
transport finished products from those refineries.

     Natural gas is piled to all parts of Transylvania from sources in the
center of the province, but the Carpathians are an obstacle to its
distribution to other parts of the country. One major line crosses the
Transylvanian Alps to serve the Bucharest area, and another crosses the
Moldavian Carpathians through Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. It serves areas to the
southeast as far as Galati, on the Danube River.

Merchant Marine

     The country has a small, but growing, merchant marine. Although most of
its ships are new, the more than 100 percent increase-to nearly 0.5 million
deadweight tons-claimed to have been achieved between 1967 and 1969 was
accounted for by less than a dozen ships, consisting of two tankers and some
bulk cargo carriers that were built in Japan. The government releases no
official statistics on its merchant fleet, but fragmentary information
indicates that before 1967 it consisted of about thirty-five ships. One of
them was a 2,000-deadweight-ton passenger-cargo vessel, and there were a few
tankers totaling something over 100,000 deadweight tons. The remainder were
freighters, averaging about 5,000 deadweight tons each.

     Statistics on goods transported by sea substantiate the size and growth
of the merchant marine fleet. Until about 1960 it had relatively little
importance, but by 1966 cargo carried was almost ten times that of 1960, and
by 1969 it had again tripled. The impressive growth statistics
notwithstanding, sea transport in 1969 accounted for only about 1.5 percent of
the total cargo transported.

     Constanta is the major port on the Black Sea, but some smaller seagoing
vessels go up the Danube River to Galati and Braila. All of the larger river
towns, and all of those on rail lines that cross it or terminate at the river,
are considered river ports. Mangalia, on the Black Sea coast south of
Constanta and about five miles from the Bulgarian border, is a secondary
seaport but has the country's largest naval installation (see ch. 13).