The Romanians (Romanian: români pronounced [roˈmɨnʲ] or—historically, but now a seldom-used regionalism—

rumâni; dated exonym: Vlachs) are a Romance[53][54][55][56] ethnic group and nation native to Romania, that share a

common Romanian culture, ancestry, and speak the Romanian language, the most widespread spoken Balkan
Romance language, which is descended from the Latin language. According to the 2011 Romanian census, just
under 89% of Romania's citizens identified themselves as ethnic Romanians.
In one interpretation of the census results in Moldova, the Moldovans are counted as Romanians, which would mean
that the latter form part of the majority in that country as well.[57][58] Romanians are also an ethnic minority in several
nearby countries situated in Central, respectively Eastern Europe, particularly in Hungary, Czech
Republic, Ukraine (including Moldovans), Serbia, and Bulgaria.
Today, estimates of the number of Romanian people worldwide vary from 26 to 30 million according to various
sources, evidently depending on the definition of the term 'Romanian', Romanians native to Romania and Republic of
Moldova and their afferent diasporas, native speakers of Romanian, as well as other Balkan Romance-speaking
groups considered by most scholars and the Romanian Academy[59] as a constituent part of the broader Romanian
people, specifically Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians, and Vlachs of Serbia (including medieval
Vlachs), in Croatia, in Bulgaria, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[1][2][3][60][61]

History[edit]
Main article: History of Romania

Antiquity[edit]
Main article: Origin of the Romanians

Map showing the area where Dacian was spoken. The blue area shows the Dacian lands conquered by the Roman Empire. The orange area

was inhabited by Free Dacian tribes and others.

Inhabited by the ancient Dacians, part of today's territory of Romania was conquered by the Roman Empire in 106,
[62]
 when Trajan's army defeated the army of Dacia's ruler Decebalus (see Dacian Wars). The Roman
administration withdrew two centuries later, under the pressure of the Goths and Carpi.
Two theories account for the origin of the Romanian people. One, known as the Daco-Roman continuity theory,
posits that they are descendants of Romans and Romanized indigenous peoples living in the Roman Province
of Dacia, while the other posits that the Romanians are descendants of Romans and Romanized indigenous
populations of the former Roman provinces of Illyria, Moesia, Thrace, and Macedon, and the ancestors of Romanians
later migrated from these Roman provinces south of the Danube into the area which they inhabit today.
According to the first theory, the Romanians are descended from indigenous populations that inhabited what is now
Romania and its immediate environs: Thracians (Dacians, Getae) and Roman legionnaires and colonists. In the
course of the two wars with the Roman legions, between AD 101–102 and AD 105–106 respectively, the
emperor Trajan succeeded in defeating the Dacians and the greatest part of Dacia became a Roman province.
Map showing the area where Latin language was spoken in pink during the Roman Empire in the 4–7th century.

The colonisation with Roman or Romanized elements, the use of the Latin language and the assimilation of Roman
civilisation as well as the intense development of urban centres led to the Romanization of part of the autochthonous
population in Dacia. This process was probably concluded by the 10th century when the assimilation of the Slavs by
the Daco-Romanians was completed.[63]
According to the south-of-the-Danube origin theory, the Romanians' ancestors, a combination of Romans and
Romanized peoples of Illyria, Moesia and Thrace, moved northward across the Danube river into modern-day
Romania. Small population groups speaking several versions of Romanian (Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian, and
Aromanian) still exist south of the Danube in Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia, but it is not known
whether they themselves migrated from more northern parts of the Balkans, including Dacia. The south-of-the
Danube theory usually favours northern Albania and/or Moesia (modern day Serbia and Northern Bulgaria) as the
more specific places of Romanian ethnogenesis.
Small genetic differences were reportedly[64] found among Southeastern European (Greece, Albania) populations and
especially those of the Dniester–Carpathian (Romania, Moldova, Ukraine) region. Despite this low level of
differentiation between them, tree reconstruction and principal component analyses allowed a distinction between
Balkan–Carpathian (Romanians, Moldovans, Ukrainians, Macedonians, and Gagauzes) and Balkan Mediterranean
(Greeks, Albanians, Turks) population groups. The genetic affinities among Dniester–Carpathian and southeastern
European populations do not reflect their linguistic relationships. According to the report, the results indicate that the
ethnic and genetic differentiations occurred in these regions to a considerable extent independently of each other.

Middle Ages to Early Modern Age[edit]

See also: Romania in the Early Middle Ages  and  Romania in the Middle Ages

Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia during the late 15th century.

During the Middle Ages Romanians were mostly known as Vlachs, a blanket term ultimately of Germanic origin, from
the word Walha, used by ancient Germanic peoples to refer to Romance-speaking and Celtic neighbours. Besides
the separation of some groups (Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, and Istro-Romanians) during the Age of Migration,
many Vlachs could be found all over the Balkans, in Transylvania,[65] across Carpathian Mountains[66] as far north
as Poland and as far west as the regions of Moravia (part of the modern Czech Republic), some went as far east
as Volhynia of western Ukraine, and the present-day Croatia where the Morlachs gradually disappeared, while the
Catholic and Orthodox Vlachs took Croat and Serb national identity.[67]
Because of the migrations that followed – such as those of Slavs, Bulgars, Hungarians, and Tatars – the Romanians
were organised in agricultural communes (obști), developing large centralised states only in the 14th century, when
the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia emerged to fight the Ottoman Empire.
During the late Middle Ages, prominent medieval Romanian monarchs such as Bogdan of Moldavia, Stephen the
Great, Mircea the Elder, Michael the Brave, or Vlad the Impaler took part actively in the history of Central Europe by
waging tumultuous wars and leading noteworthy crusades against the then continuously expanding Ottoman Empire,
at times allied with either the Kingdom of Poland or the Kingdom of Hungary in these causes.
Eventually the entire Balkan peninsula was annexed by the Ottoman Empire. However, Moldavia and Wallachia
(extending to Dobruja and Bulgaria) were not entirely subdued by the Ottomans as both principalities became
autonomous (which was not the case of other Ottoman territorial possessions in Europe). Transylvania, a third region
inhabited by an important majority of Romanian speakers, was a vassal state of the Ottomans until 1687, when the
principality became part of the Habsburg possessions. The three principalities were united for several months in 1600
under the authority of Wallachian Prince Michael the Brave.[68]

Map depicting Romanian and Vlach transhumance in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

Additionally, in medieval times there were other lands known by the name 'Vlach' (such as Great Vlachia, situated
between Thessaly and the western Pindus mountains, originally within the Byzantine Empire, but after the 13th
century autonomous or semi-independent; White Wallachia, a Byzantine denomination for the region between the
Danube River and the Balkans; Moravian Wallachia, a region in south-eastern Czech Republic).
Up until 1541, Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, later (due to the conquest of Hungary by the
Ottoman Empire) was a self-governed Principality governed by the Hungarian nobility. In 1699 it became a part of
the Habsburg lands. By the 19th century, the Austrian Empire was awarded by the Ottomans with the region
of Bukovina and, in 1812, the Russians occupied the eastern half of Moldavia, known as Bessarabia.

Late Modern Age to Contemporary Era[edit]

Animated history of Romania's borders (mid 19th century–present).

Map depicting the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1878.

In the context of the 1848 Romanticist and liberal revolutions across Europe, the events that took place in the Grand
Principality of Transylvania were the first of their kind to unfold in the Romanian-speaking territories. On the one
hand, the Transylvanian Saxons and the Transylvanian Romanians (with consistent support on behalf of the Austrian
Empire) successfully managed to oppose the goals of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, with the two noteworthy
historical figures leading the common Romanian-Saxon side at the time being Avram Iancu and Stephan Ludwig
Roth.
On the other hand, the Wallachian revolutions of 1821 and 1848 as well as the Moldavian Revolution of 1848, which
aimed for independence from Ottoman and Russian foreign rulership, represented important impacts in the process
of spreading the liberal ideology in the eastern and southern Romanian lands, in spite of the fact that all three
eventually failed. Nonetheless, in 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia elected the same ruler, namely Alexander John
Cuza (who reigned as Domnitor) and were thus unified de facto, resulting in the United Romanian Principalities for
the period between 1859 and 1881.
During the 1870s, the United Romanian Principalities (then led by Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Domnitor Carol I)
fought a War of Independence against the Ottomans, with Romania's independence being formally recognised in
1878 at the Treaty of Berlin. Although the newly founded Kingdom of Romania initially allied with Austria-
Hungary, Romania refused to enter World War I on the side of the Central Powers, because it was obliged to wage
war only if Austria-Hungary was attacked. In 1916, Romania joined the war on the side of the Triple Entente.
As a result, at the end of the war, Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina were awarded to Romania, through a
series of international peace treaties, resulting in an enlarged and far more powerful kingdom under King Ferdinand I.
As of 1920, the Romanian people was believed to number over 15 million solely in the region of the Romanian
kingdom, a figure larger than the populations of Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands combined.[69]
During the interwar period, two additional monarchs came to the Romanian throne, namely Carol II and Michael I.
This short-lived period was marked, at times, by political instabilities and efforts of maintaining a constitutional
monarchy in favour of other, totalitarian regimes such as an absolute monarchy or a military dictatorship.
During World War II, the Kingdom of Romania lost territory both to the east and west, as Northern
Transylvania became part of Hungary through the Second Vienna Award, while Bessarabia and northern Bukovina
were taken by the Soviets and included in the Moldavian SSR, respectively Ukrainian SSR. The eastern territory
losses were facilitated by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact.
After the end of the war, the Romanian Kingdom managed to regain territories lost westward but was nonetheless not
given Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, the aforementioned regions being forcefully incorporated into the Soviet
Union. Subsequently, the Soviet Union imposed a Communist government and King Michael was forced to abdicate
and leave for exile. Nicolae Ceaușescu became the head of the Romanian Communist Party in 1965 and his
draconian rule of the 1980s was ended by the Romanian Revolution of 1989.
The 1989 revolution brought to power the dissident communist Ion Iliescu. He remained in power as head of state
until 1996, when he was defeated by CDR-supported Emil Constantinescu at the 1996 general elections, the first in
post-Communist Romania that saw a peaceful transition of power. Following Constantinescu's only term as president
from 1996 to 2000, Iliescu was re-elected in late 2000 for another term of four years. In 2004, Traian Băsescu,
the PNL-PD candidate, was elected president. Five years later, Băsescu was narrowly re-elected for a second term at
the 2009 presidential elections.
In 2014, the PNL-PDL candidate Klaus Johannis won a surprise victory over former prime minister and PSD-
supported contender Victor Ponta in the second round of the 2014 presidential elections. Thus, Johannis became the
first Romanian president stemming from an ethnic minority (as he belongs to the Romanian-German community,
being a Transylvanian Saxon). In 2019, the PNL-supported Johannis was re-elected to a second term as president at
the 2019 Romanian presidential election.
In the meantime, Romania's major foreign policy achievements were the alignment with Western Europe and
the United States by joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2004 and the European Union three
years later, in 2007.

Genetics[edit]
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Frequencies of Y Haplogroups in Europe

The prevailing element in Wallachia (Ploiești, Dolj), Moldavia (Piatra Neamț, Buhuși), Dobruja (Constanța), and

northern Republic of Moldova is recorded to be Haplogroup I,[70] while the gene pool of Transylvania is often untypical
and diverse.[71][clarification needed]
On the basis of 361 samples, Haplogroup I occurs at 32% in Romanians.[72] The highest frequency of I2a1 (I-P37) in
the Balkans today was present before the Slavic expansion and is owed to indigenous tribes,[73] and is particularly
suggested to have been common among the ancient Thracians in Romania.[74][clarification needed]
Romanians according to genetic origin by Y-DNA
haplogroup
Haplogroup I2   28%
Haplgroup R1a   18%
Haplogroup
  15%
R1b
Haplogroup
  14%
E1b1b
Haplogroup J2   14%
Haplogroup I1   4%
Other
  7%
haplogroups

According to 335 sampled Romanians, 15% of them belong to R1a.[75] Haplogroup R1a among Romanians is entirely
from the Eastern European variety Z282 and may be a result of Baltic, Thracian or Slavic descent. R1a-Z280
outnumbers R1a-M458 among Romanians, the opposite phenomena is typical for Poles, Czechs and Bulgarians.
12% of the Romanians belong to R1b, the Alpino-Italic branch R1b-U152 is at 2% per 330 samples, a lower
frequency recorded than other Balkan peoples.[76]
Distribution of Y-DNA Haplogroup I1 in Eurasia and parts of Africa

Distribution of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1a in Europe

Distribution of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b in Eurasia and parts of Africa

The branches R1b-U106, R1b-DF27 and R1b-L21 make up 1% respectively.[76] The eastern branches R1b-M269* and
L23* (Z2103) make up 7% and outnumber the Atlantic branches, they prevail in parts of east, central Europe and as a
result of Greek colonisation – in parts of Sicily as well.[76] 8% of the Romanians belong to E1b1b1a1 (E-M78) per 265
samples.[77]
From a group of 178 males from 9 Romanian counties, mainly from Transylvania, most of them belong to
the Paleolithic European lineage I2a (17% I2a1b, 2% I2a2, 3% I2*), to R1a (20%) and to E1b1b1a1b (19%).
[71]
 Haplogroup J2 is represented at 16% among them, unlike the structure in the Apennine Peninsula, among
Romanians the J2b clade prevails.[71] About 10% of these belong to Haplogroup R1b in all counties. R1b-U152, the
specific Alpino-Italic clade, is represented at 3% among them, the prevailing branches are eastern, except
for Brașov where Germanic U106 is most frequent. U106 is also prevalent clade of R1b in Buhuși and Piatra Neamț.
In Brașov and Dolj I2 prevails, in Cluj – R1a. Another 6% of these belong to I1 and 2% to G2a. T, N, Q are also
represented by frequencies of less than a percent.[71]
Despite negligible Roman genetic traits in general, one study[78] of 219 Romanians found strong indications in other
parts of Transylvania, in the region corresponding to Roman Dacia. The highest frequency of R1b (31–32%) in
Eastern Europe only behind Trebic in the Czech Republic (32.7%) was found in the Romanian
counties Arad and Alba, that experienced Celtic settlement, the heaviest and only Roman colonisation with a
significant number of colonists from Noricum and West Pannonia, and later German settlement.
The subclade of R1b was not revealed in the case, but no similar high or prevailing frequency of Eastern subclades of
R1b has ever been found in Europe. Three of the ten towns that were almost exclusively populated by Roman
citizens (Apulum, Ampelum and Potaissa) were in present Alba Iulia county, not far from the Roman
capital Sarmizegetusa. Genetic isolate due to migration from unattested migration from the Middle East would not be
a plausible historic-geographical event as even the eastern branch of R1b in Europe is different than these in the
Middle East. The only ethnic groups with higher frequencies of R1b in the East are the Aromanians due to their main
ancestry from the Roman West. In some occasions the U106 branch, which is minimal among Romanians, rises to
the prevailing clade in some cities, but still at a low frequency. The high frequency of R1b was found in other places
in Transylvania – 25% in Maramureș and Harghita, 20% in Mehedinți, 14% in Bihor, 11% in Vrancea, 0% in Neamț.
Excluding Arad and Alba Iulia, Haplogroup I+G was found as most frequent in all, except Maramureș, where
Haplogroup J was found to be prevalent.
According to an autosomal analysis of eastern Europeans and adjacent peoples, the group of Bulgarians and
Macedonians is located together with Romanians.[73] Most West Slavs, Hungarians, and Austrians tend to share as
many identical by-descent segments with South Slavs as with Romanians, Torbeshi and Gagauzes.[73]
Showing the importance of geography, a 2017 paper, concentrating on the mtDNA, signalling how Romania has been
"a major crossroads between Asia and Europe" and thus "experienced continuous migration and invasion episodes",
while precising that "previous studies" show Romanians "exhibit genetic similarity with other Europeans" or that
"another study pointed to possible segregation within the Middle East populations", also mentions how "signals of
Asian maternal lineages were observed in all Romanian historical provinces, indicating gene flow along the migration
routes through East Asia and Europe, during different time periods, namely, the Upper Paleolithic period and/or, with
a likely greater preponderance, the Middle Ages", and concludes that "our current findings based on the mtDNA
analysis of populations in historical provinces of Romania suggest similarity between populations
in Transylvania and Central Europe," on one hand, as well between Wallachia, Moldavia, and Dobrudja with
the Balkans, on the another, "supported both by the observed clines in haplogroup frequencies for several European
and Asian maternal lineages and MDS analyses."[79]

Language[edit]
Main article: Romanian language

Neacșu's letter to Johannes Benkner (former mayor of Kronstadt/Brașov) is the oldest document written in Romanian discovered to date

The origins of the Romanian language, a Romance language, can be traced back to the Roman colonisation of the
region. The basic vocabulary is of Latin origin,[69] although there are some substratum words that are sometimes
assumed to be of Dacian origin.
During the Middle Ages, Romanian was isolated from the other Romance languages, and borrowed words from the
nearby Slavic languages (see Slavic influence on Romanian). Later on, it borrowed a number of words
from German, Hungarian, and Turkish.[80] During the modern era, most neologisms were borrowed
from French and Italian, though the language has increasingly begun to adopt English borrowings.
The Moldovan language, in its official form, is practically identical to Romanian, although there are some differences
in colloquial speech. In the de facto independent (but internationally unrecognised) region of Transnistria, the official
script used to write Moldovan is Cyrillic.
As of 2017, an Ethnologue estimation puts the (worldwide) number of Romanian speakers at approximately 24.15
million.[81] The 24.15 million, however, represent only speakers of Romanian, not all of whom are necessarily ethnic
Romanians. Also, this number does not include ethnic-Romanians who no longer speak the Romanian language.

Surnames[edit]
Many Romanian surnames have the suffix -escu or (less commonly) -așcu or -ăscu which corresponds to the Latin
suffix -iscus and means "belonging to the people". For example, Petrescu used to be Petre's kin. Similar suffixes such
as -asco, -asgo, -esque, -ez, etc. are present in other Latin-derived languages. Many Romanians in France changed
this ending of their surnames to -esco, because the way it is pronounced in French better approximates the
Romanian pronunciation of -escu.
Another widespread suffix of Romanian surnames is -eanu (or -an, -anu), which indicates the geographical origin.
Here some examples: Moldoveanu/Moldovan/Moldovanu, from the region of Moldavia or from river Moldova,
Munteanu "from mountains", Jianu "from Jiu river region", Pruteanu, meaning from the Prut river, Mureșanu, meaning
from the Mureș river, Petreanu (meaning the son of Petre) etc..
Other suffixes are -aru (or -oru, -ar, -or), which indicates an occupation (like Feraru "smith", Morar "miller"), and -ei,
usually preceded by A- in front of a female name, which is a Latin inherited female genitive, like in Amariei "of
Maria", Aelenei "of Elena". These matrilineal-rooted surnames are common in the historical region of Moldavia.

 The most common surnames are Pop / Popa ("the priest")—almost 200,000 Romanians have this
surname[82]
 —Popescu ("son of the priest") —almost 150,000 have this name[82]
 — and Ionescu ("John's (Ion's) son").

Names for Romanians[edit]

In English, Romanians are usually called Romanians, Rumanians, or Roumanians except in some historical texts,
where they are called Roumans or Vlachs.

Etymology of the name Romanian (român)[edit]

Main article: Name of Romania

Romanian revolutionaries of 1848 waving the tricolor flag

From the Middle Ages, Romanians bore two names, the exonym (one given to them by
foreigners) Wallachians or Vlachs, under its various forms (vlah, valah, valach, voloh, blac, olăh, vlas, ilac, ulah, etc.),
and the endonym (the name they used for themselves) Romanians (Rumâni/Români).[83]
The name "Romanian" is derived from Latin "Romanus". Under regular phonetical changes that are typical to the
Romanian languages, the name romanus over the centuries transformed into "rumân" [ruˈmɨn]. An older form of
"român" was still in use in some regions. Socio-linguistic evolutions in the late 18th century led to a gradual
preponderance of the "român" spelling form, which was then generalised during the National awakening of
Romania of early 19th century.
Until the 19th century, the term Romanian denoted the speakers of the Daco-Romanian dialect of the Romanian
language, thus being a much more distinct concept than that of Romania, the country of the Romanians. Prior to
1867, the (Daco-)Romanians were part of different state entities: with the Moldavians and the Wallachians being split
off and having shaped separate political identities, possessing states of their own, while the rest of the Romanians
were part of other states. However, eventually they retained their Romanian cultural and ethnic identity up today.

Daco-Romanian[edit]
To distinguish Romanians from the other Romanic peoples of the Balkans (Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, and
Istro-Romanians), the term Daco-Romanian is sometimes used to refer to those who speak the standard Romanian
language and live in the territory of ancient Dacia (today comprising mostly Romania and Moldova), although some
Daco-Romanians can be found in the eastern part of Central Serbia (which was part of ancient Moesia).

Etymology of the term Vlach[edit]

Main article: Vlachs
The name of "Vlachs" is an exonym that was used by Slavs to refer to all Romanized natives of the Balkans. It holds
its origin from ancient Germanic—being a cognate to "Welsh" and "Walloon"—and perhaps even further back in time,
from the Roman name Volcae, which was originally a Celtic tribe. From the Slavs, it was passed on to other peoples,
such as the Hungarians (Oláh) and Greeks (Vlachoi) (see the Etymology section of Vlachs). Wallachia, the Southern
region of Romania, takes its name from the same source.
Nowadays, the term Vlach is more often used to refer to the Romanized populations of the Balkans who speak Daco-
Romanian, Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, and Megleno-Romanian.

Anthroponyms[edit]
These are family names that have been derived from either Vlach or Romanian. Most of these names have been
given when a Romanian settled in a non-Romanian region. Examples: Oláh (37,147 Hungarians have this name),
Vlach, Vlahuta, Vlasa, Vlasi, Vlašic, Vlasceanu, Vlachopoulos, Voloh, Volyh, Vlack, Flack, and Vlax.

Romanians outside Romania[edit]

Main article: Romanian diaspora

Charts depicting share of Romanians living abroad within other states of the European Union

Most Romanians live in Romania, where they constitute a majority; Romanians also constitute a minority in the
countries that neighbour Romania. Romanians can also be found in many countries, notably in the other EU
countries, particularly in Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and France; in North America in the United
States and Canada; in Israel; as well as in Brazil, Australia, Argentina, and New Zealand among many other
countries. Italy and Spain have been popular emigration destinations, due to a relatively low language barrier, and
both are each now home to about a million Romanians. With respect to geopolitical identity, many individuals of
Romanian ethnicity in Moldova prefer to identify themselves as Moldovans.[57][58]
The contemporary total population of ethnic Romanians cannot be stated with any degree of certainty. A disparity can
be observed between official sources (such as census counts) where they exist, and estimates which come from non-
official sources and interested groups. Several inhibiting factors (not unique to this particular case) contribute towards
this uncertainty, which may include:

 A degree of overlap may exist or be shared between Romanian and other ethnic identities in certain
situations, and census or survey respondents may elect to identify with one particular ancestry but not another,
or instead identify with multiple ancestries;[84]
 Counts and estimates may inconsistently distinguish between Romanian nationality and Romanian ethnicity
(i.e. not all Romanian nationals identify with Romanian ethnicity, and vice versa);[84]
 The measurements and methodologies employed by governments to enumerate and describe the ethnicity
and ancestry of their citizens vary from country to country. Thus the census definition of "Romanian" might
variously mean Romanian-born, of Romanian parentage, or also include other ethnic identities as Romanian
which otherwise are identified separately in other contexts;[84]
For example, the decennial US Census of 2000 calculated (based on a statistical sampling of household data) that
there were 367,310 respondents indicating Romanian ancestry (roughly 0.1% of the total population).[85]
The actual total recorded number of foreign-born Romanians was only 136,000 Migration Information
Source However, some non-specialist organisations have produced estimates which are considerably higher: a 2002
study by the Romanian-American Network Inc. mentions an estimated figure of 1,200,000[42] for the number
of Romanian-Americans. Which makes the United States home to the largest Romanian community outside
Romania.
This estimate notes however that "...other immigrants of Romanian national minority groups have been included such
as: Armenians, Germans, Gypsies, Hungarians, Jews, and Ukrainians". It also includes an unspecified allowance for
second- and third-generation Romanians, and an indeterminate number living in Canada. An error range for the
estimate is not provided. For the United States 2000 Census figures, almost 20% of the total population did not
classify or report an ancestry, and the census is also subject to undercounting, an incomplete (67%) response rate,
and sampling error in general.

Culture[edit]
Main article: Culture of Romania

Contributions to contemporary culture[edit]

Main article: List of Romanians
Romanians have played and contributed a major role in the advancement of the arts, culture, sciences, technology
and engineering.
In the history of aviation, Traian Vuia and Aurel Vlaicu built and tested some of the earliest aircraft designs,
while Henri Coandă discovered the Coandă effect of fluidics. Victor Babeș discovered more than 50 germs and a
cure for a disease named after him, babesiosis; biologist Nicolae Paulescu discovered insulin. Another biologist, Emil
Palade, received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to cell biology. George Constantinescu created the theory of
sonics, while mathematician Ștefan Odobleja is regarded as the ideological father behind cybernetics – his work The
Consonantist Psychology (Paris, 1938) was the main source of inspiration for N. Wiener's Cybernetics (Paris,
1948). Lazăr Edeleanu was the first chemist to synthesize amphetamine and also invented the modern method
of refining crude oil.

Aurel Vlaicu, early pioneer of spacecraft and aviation


 Traian Vuia, early pioneer of spacecraft and aviation

Petrache Poenaru, the inventor of the modern pen

Nicolae Paulescu, a pioneer of insulin development

Victor Babeș, physician and bacteriologist who made early progress in studying several diseases

Emil Racoviță, the first biologist to study Arctic life

In the arts and culture, prominent figures were George Enescu (music composer, violinist, professor of Sir Yehudi
Menuhin), Constantin Brâncuși (sculptor), Eugène Ionesco (playwright), Mircea Eliade (historian of religion and
novelist), Emil Cioran (essayist, Prix de l'Institut Francais for stylism) and Angela Gheorghiu (soprano). More recently,
filmmakers such as Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu have attracted international acclaim, as has fashion
designer Ioana Ciolacu.
 

Eugen Ionescu, famous playwright

Mircea Eliade, writer and historian of religions

Emil Cioran, essayist and philosopher

George Enescu, renowned music composer


 Sergiu Celibidache, honored conductor and music teacher

Constantin Brâncuși, reputed sculptor

In sports, Romanians have excelled in a variety of fields, such as football (Gheorghe Hagi), gymnastics (Nadia
Comăneci, Lavinia Miloșovici etc.), tennis (Ilie Năstase, Ion Țiriac, Bianca Vanessa Andreescu, Simona Halep),
canoe racing (Ivan Patzaichin) and handball (four times men's World Cup winners). Count Dracula is a worldwide
icon of Romania. This character was created by the Irish fiction writer Bram Stoker, based on some stories spread in
the late Middle Ages by the frustrated German trademen of Kronstadt (Brașov) and on some vampire folk tales about
the historic Romanian figure of Prince Vlad Țepeș.

Religion[edit]
See also: History of Christianity in Romania
Almost 90% of all Romanians consider themselves religious.[86] The vast majority are Eastern Orthodox Christians,
belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Church (a branch of Eastern Orthodoxy, or Eastern Orthodox Church, together
with the Greek Orthodox, Orthodox Church of Georgia and Russian Orthodox Churches, among others).
According to the 2011 census, 93.6% of ethnic Romanians in Romania identified themselves as Romanian Orthodox
(in comparison to 86.8% of Romania's total population, including other ethnic groups).[87] However, the actual rate of
church attendance is significantly lower and many Romanians are only nominally believers. For example, according
to a 2006 Eurobarometer poll, only 23% of Romanians attend church once a week or more.[88] A 2006 poll conducted
by the Open Society Foundation found that only 33% of Romanians attended church once a month or more.[89]
 Romano-Gothic Densuș Church, Hunedoara, Transylvania

Romano-Gothic Strei Church, Hunedoara, Transylvania

St. Nicholas Church, Brașov, Transylvania

 
 

Nativity of St. John the Baptist Church, Piatra Neamț, Moldavia

Metropolitan Cathedral, Iași, Moldavia

Putna Monastery, Bukovina

Romanian Catholics are present in Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina, Bucharest, and parts of Moldavia, belonging to

both the Roman Catholic Church (297,246 members) and the Romanian Greek-Catholic Catholic Church (124,563
members). According to the 2011 census, 2.5% of ethnic Romanians in Romania identified themselves as Catholic
(in comparison to 4.3% of Romania's total population, including other ethnic groups). Around 1.6% of ethnic
Romanians in Romania identify themselves as Pentecostal, with the population numbering 276,678 members.
Smaller percentages are Protestant, Jews, Muslims, agnostic, atheist, or practice a traditional religion.

Roman Catholic Saint Joseph Cathedral, Bucharest, Wallachia

Roman Catholic St. Michael's Cathedral, Alba Iulia, Transylvania

 
 

Greek Catholic Holy Trinity Cathedral, Blaj, Transylvania

Greek Catholic Assumption of Mary Cathedral, Baia Mare, Transylvania

Roman Catholic St. John of Nepomuk Church, Suceava, Bukovina

Roman Catholic St. George's Cathedral in Timișoara, Banat

There are no official dates for the adoption of religions by the Romanians. Based on linguistic and archaeological
findings, historians suggest that the Romanians' ancestors acquired polytheistic religions in the Roman era, later
adopting Christianity, certainly by the 4th century CE when decreed by Emperor Constantine as the official religion of
the Roman Empire. Like in all other Romance languages, the basic Romanian words related to Christianity are
inherited from Latin, such as God ("Dumnezeu" < Domine Deus), church ("biserică" < basilica), cross ("cruce" < crux,
-cis), angel ("înger" < angelus), saint (regional: "sfân(t)" < sanctus), Christmas ("Crăciun" < creatio,
-onis), Christian ("creștin" < christianus), Easter ("paște" < paschae), sin ("păcat" < peccatum), to baptise ("a boteza"
< batizare), priest ("preot" < presbiterum), to pray ("a ruga" < rogare), faith ( "credință" < credentia ), and so on.
After the Great Schism, there existed a Catholic Bishopric of Cumania (later, separate bishoprics in
both Wallachia and Moldavia). However, this seems to be the exception, rather than the rule, as in
both Wallachia and Moldavia the state religion was Eastern Orthodox. Until the 17th century, the official language of
the liturgy was Old Church Slavonic. Then, it gradually changed to Romanian.
According to a survey that took place in 2011, despite 94% of respondents answered positively for believing in God,
42% support the vision of Christian dogma that there is a God incarnated into a human being. While 34% of
respondents said that there is only one true religion, 38% believe that there is one true religion and that other
religions contain some basic truths, according to 18% there is one true religion and all major world religions contain
some fundamental truths. 88% of Romanians believe in the existence of a soul, 87% believe in sin and the existence
of heaven, 60% believe in an "evil eye", 25% believe in horoscopes and 23% in aliens.[90] According to a 2004 survey,
80% consider themselves not superstitious and the same amount believe in angels, about 40% believe they have had
dreams that became deja vu and 19% believe in ghosts.[91]

Symbols[edit]

National symbols of Romania: the flag (left) and the coat of arms (right).

In addition to the colours of the Romanian flag, each historical province of Romania has its own characteristic symbol:

 Banat: Trajan's Bridge
 Dobruja: Dolphin
 Moldavia (including Bukovina and Bessarabia): Aurochs/Wisent
 Oltenia: Lion
 Transylvania: Black eagle or Turul
 Wallachia: Eagle
The Coat of Arms of Romania combines these together.

Customs[edit]
Main article: Romanian folklore

Relationship to other ethnic groups[edit]

The closest ethnic groups to the Romanians are the other Romanic peoples of Southeastern Europe:
the Aromanians (Macedo-Romanians), the Megleno-Romanians, and the Istro-Romanians. The Istro-Romanians are
the closest ethnic group to the Romanians, and it is believed they left Maramureș, Transylvania about a thousand
years ago and settled in Istria, Croatia.[92] Numbering about 500 people still living in the original villages of Istria while
the majority left for other countries after World War II (mainly to Italy, United States, Canada, Germany, France,
Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, and Australia), they speak the Istro-Romanian language, the closest living relative of
Romanian.
The Aromanians and the Megleno-Romanians are Romanic peoples who live south of the Danube, mainly
in Greece, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia, although some of them migrated to Romania in the 20th century.
It is believed that they diverged from the Romanians in the 7th to 9th century, and currently speak the Aromanian
language and Megleno-Romanian language, both of which are Balkan Romance languages, like Romanian, and are
sometimes considered by traditional Romanian linguists to be dialects of Romanian.
Gallery[edit]


Transylvanian Romanian peasants from Abrud

Romanian family going to a fair, early 19th century

Traditional Romanian peasant costume (first group)

Romanians from Transylvania, late 19th century

 
 

Romanian peasant costume from Bukovina, early 20th century

Romanians from Bukovina, early 20th century postcard

Romanians from Wallachia, early 19th century

Romanians from central Serbia, late 19th century

Romanian infantrymen from Wallachia, early 19th century

 
 

Romanian immigrants in New York City, late 19th century

Young Wallachian shepherd, early 20th century

Romanian peasants during the harvest season (1920)

Mid 19th century French map depicting Romanians in Central and Eastern Europe

Early 20th century ethnic distribution of Eastern Romance-speaking groups (including, most notably, the Romanians)
 

Romanians in Central Europe (coloured in blue), 1880

Ethnic map of Austria-Hungary and Romania, 1892

British map depicting territories inhabited by Eastern Romance peoples before the outbreak of World War I

Romanian speakers in Central and Eastern Europe, early 20th century

Map of the Kingdom of Romania (1920–1940)

 
 

Geographic distribution of ethnic Romanians in the early 21st century

Notable regions with inhabited by Eastern Romance speakers at the beginning of the 21st century

Map highlighting the three main sub-groups of Daco-Romanians

Share of Romanians in Romania (coloured in purple) at commune level (2011 census)

Share of Romanian in Romania (coloured in purple) at county level (2011 census)