Romania’s population will reach 15.633 million people in 2080, compared with 19.043 million on January 1, 2025, according to the latest projections made by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), published on Friday on the occasion of World Population Day.
The country’s resident population will therefore decrease by 3.41 million people, or -17.9%, by 2080. In this context, the share of the young population (under 15 years old) and the adult population (15–64 years old) will decrease to 13.7% and 60.4%, respectively, compared with the reference period, while the share of the elderly population (65 years old and over) will increase to 25.9% of the total.
On January 1, 2025, Romania’s resident population was 19.043 million inhabitants, of which 51.5% were people living in urban areas. The female population was the majority and included 9.752 million people (51.2% of the total resident population).
Compared with January 1, 2024, the deepening of the demographic aging phenomenon is noticeable through the reduction of the young population (aged 0–14) by 92,200 people, its share representing 15.4% of the total resident population.
At the same time, the share of the elderly population (aged 65 and over) increased from 20% on January 1, 2024, to 20.3% (45,100 people) one year later.
INS data further show that the adult population (15–64 years old) represents 64.3% of the total, increasing by 22,600 people compared with the beginning of 2024. According to official statistics, the average age of the resident population continued to increase and reached 42.8 years on January 1, 2025. At the same time, the acceleration of the demographic aging process from year to year is noticeable, reflected by the increase in the share of the elderly population (65 years and over). Thus, the demographic aging index increased from 81 (on January 1, 2005) to 131.3 elderly people per one hundred young people (on January 1, 2025).
At the beginning of last year, the North-East region (with the counties: Bacău, Botoșani, Iași, Neamț, Suceava, Vaslui) had the largest number of inhabitants, with a share of 16.9% of the country’s resident population. At the opposite end was the West region (formed by the counties: Arad, Caraș-Severin, Hunedoara, Timiș), with a share of only 8.8% of the resident population.
Regarding the natural increase of the resident population, in 2025 it continued to be negative (-104,100 people), with negative values also recorded territorially in all regions of the country. The largest negative natural increase was recorded in the South-Muntenia region (-21,400 people), and the smallest in the Bucharest-Ilfov region (-7,300).
UN Population Division statistics show that, on July 1, 2023, the world population was estimated at 8.1 billion inhabitants, with the countries having the largest populations being India (1.438 billion inhabitants), China (1.422 billion), the United States of America (343 million), Indonesia (281 million), and Pakistan (247 million).
According to Eurostat, Romania ranks 6th in the European Union (EU) in terms of resident population as of January 1, 2025. The country with the largest population in the EU is Germany (83.577 million inhabitants), while at the opposite end is Malta, with 574,300 inhabitants.
Another demographic aspect underlined by INS is international migration. The phenomenon managed to stabilize Romania’s resident population at approximately 19 million inhabitants, even though the natural increase remains negative, with an annual decline between 70,000 and 100,000 people, said the president of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Tudorel Andrei.
(Photo source: Radub85 | Dreamstime.com)
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