"O country mine! You are like good health:
How much one should prize you, he only can tell
Who has lost you."
Quotation from Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, one of the greatest Polish Romantic poets of the 19th century

Area: 237,500 sq km (slightly smaller than Oregon). Note: controls most easily traversable land route between the Balkans, Moldova, and Ukraine.
Land boundaries: total: 2,508 km
Coastline: 225 km
Climate: temperate; cold, cloudy winters with frequent snow and fog; sunny summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms
Terrain: central Transylvanian Basin is separated from the Plain of Moldavia on the east by the Carpathian Mountains and separated from the Walachian Plain on the south by the Transylvanian Alps
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Black Sea 0 m; highest point: Moldoveanu 2,544 m
Natural resources: petroleum (reserves declining), timber, natural gas, coal, iron ore, salt, arable land, hydropower
Land use: arable land: 39.49%; permanent crops: 1.92%; other: 58.59% (2005)
Irrigated land: 30,770 sq km (2003)
Natural hazards: earthquakes, most severe in south and southwest; geologic structure and climate promote landslides
Environment - current issues: soil erosion and degradation; water pollution; air pollution in south from industrial effluents; contamination of Danube delta wetlands.
Population: 22,276,056 (July 2007 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 15.6% (male 1,787,334/female 1,696,270); 15-64 years: 69.6% (male 7,721,160/female 7,793,063); 65 years and over: 14.7% (male 1,344,673/female 1,933,556) (2007 est.)
Population growth rate: -0.127% (2007 est.)
Birth rate: 10.67 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate: 11.81 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.) Infant mortality rate: 24.6 deaths/1,000 live births
Net migration rate: -0.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Sex ratio: 0.95 male(s)/female (2007 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 71.91 years, male: 68.41 years, female: 75.62 years (2007 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.38 children born/woman (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS: less than 0.1% or 6,500 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 350 (2001 est.)
Ethnic groups: Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Roma 2.5%, Ukrainian 0.3%, German 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, Turkish 0.2%, other 0.4% (2002 census)
Religions: Eastern Orthodox (including all sub-denominations) 86.8%, Protestant (various denominations including Reformate and Pentecostal) 7.5%, Roman Catholic 4.7%, other (mostly Muslim) and unspecified 0.9%, none 0.1% (2002 census)
Languages: Romanian 91% (official), Hungarian 6.7%, Romany (Gypsy) 1.1%, other 1.2%
Literacy: 97.3%; male: 98.4%, female: 96.3% (2002 census)
Government type: republic
Capital: Bucharest
Time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time). Daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
Independence: 9 May 1877 (independence proclaimed from the Ottoman Empire; independence recognized 13 July 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin); 26 March 1881 (kingdom proclaimed); 30 December 1947 (republic proclaimed)
Constitution: 8 December 1991; revision effective 29 October 2003
Legal system: based on civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Economy - overview: Romania, which joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, began the transition from Communism in 1989 with a largely obsolete industrial base and a pattern of output unsuited to the country's needs. The country emerged in 2000 from a punishing three-year recession thanks to strong demand in EU export markets. Domestic consumption and investment have fueled strong GDP growth in recent years, but have led to large current account imblances. Romania's macroeconomic gains have only recently started to spur creation of a middle class and address Romania's widespread poverty. Corruption and red tape continue to handicap its business environment.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $246.7 billion (2007 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate): $86.84 billion (2007 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 5.9% (2007 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP): $11,100 (2007 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 7.9%, industry: 35.6%, services: 56.5% (2007 est.)
Labor force: 9.35 million (2007 est.)
Unemployment rate: 4.5% (2007 est.)
Population below poverty line: 25% (2005 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.6% (2007 est.)
Budget: revenues: $52.96 billion; expenditures: $56.85 billion (2007 est.)
Public debt: 18.7% of GDP (2007 est.)
Agriculture - products: wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, sunflower seed, potatoes, grapes; eggs, sheep.
Industries: textiles and footwear, light machinery and auto assembly, mining, timber, construction materials, metallurgy, chemicals, food processing, petroleum refining.
Industrial production growth rate: 8% (2007 est.)
Current account balance: -$20.95 billion (2007 est.)
Exports: $39.62 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)
Exports - commodities: textiles and footwear, metals and metal products, machinery and equipment, minerals and fuels, chemicals, agricultural products
Exports - partners: Italy 17.9%, Germany 15.7%, Turkey 7.7%, France 7.5%, Hungary 4.9%, UK 4.7% (2006)
Imports: $63.16 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)
Imports - partners: Germany 15.2%, Italy 14.5%, Russia 7.8%, France 6.5%, Turkey 4.9%, China 4.3% (2006)
Economic aid - recipient: $914.3 million (2004)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $37.06 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Debt - external: $85.86 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Exchange rates: lei (RON) per US dollar - 2.45 (2007)
Telephone system: general assessment: rapidly improving domestic and international service, especially in wireless telephony. Domestic: more than 90 percent of telephone network is automatic; liberalization in 2003 is transforming telecommunications; fixed-line teledensity is roughly 20 telephones per 100 persons; mobile-cellular teledensity is approaching 80 telephones per 100 persons. International: country code - 40; the Black Sea Fiber Optic System provides connectivity to Bulgaria and Turkey; satellite earth stations - 10; digital, international, direct-dial exchanges operate in Bucharest (2005)
Internet country code: .ro
Internet hosts: 1.406 million (2007)
Internet users: 5.063 million (2006)
Transportation
Airports: 61 (2007). Airports - with paved runways: 25. Airports - with unpaved runways: 36. Heliports: 2 (2007)
Railways: 11,385 km; broad gauge: 60 km 1.524-m gauge, standard gauge: 10,898 km 1.435-m gauge (3,888 km electrified), narrow gauge: 427 km 0.760-m gauge (2006)
Roadways: 198,817 km, paved: 60,043 km (includes 228 km of expressways), unpaved: 138,774 km (2004)
Waterways: 1,731 km. Merchant marine: 19 ships (1000 GRT or over) 146,307 GRT/165,548 DWT, by type: cargo 13, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off . Ports and terminals: Braila, Constanta, Galati, Tulcea.
Military branches: Land Forces, Naval Forces, Romanian Air Force (Fortele Aeriene Romane, FAR), Special Operations (2006)
Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription officially ended October 2006; all military inductees (including women) contract for an initial 5-year term of service; subsequent voluntary service contracts are for successive 3-year terms until the age of 36 (2006)
Manpower available for military service: males age 20-49: 5,061,984, females age 20-49: 4,975,427 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.47% (2005 est.)
Disputes - international: the ICJ gave Ukraine until December 2006 to reply, and Romania until June 2007 to issue a rejoinder, in their dispute submitted in 2004 over Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy/Serpilor (Snake) Island and Black Sea maritime boundary delimitation; Romania also opposes Ukraine's reopening of a navigation canal from the Danube border through Ukraine to the Black Sea.
Illicit drugs: major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route and small amounts of Latin American cocaine bound for Western Europe; although not a significant financial center, role as a narcotics conduit leaves it vulnerable to laundering, which occurs via the banking system, currency exchange houses, and casinos.

Information source: CIA: The World Fact Book. For more detailed and up-to-date information visit https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ro.html