Romania Languages

The Romanian language is known as one of the Romance languages and is rooted in Latin. The first written evidence of the use of Romanian was around 1521 and included not only elements of Latin (in particular noun cases) but also Cyrillic characters. The modern day Romanian alphabet is made up of 31 letters with three characters, Q, W, and Y, being added in 1982. Romanian is the official language of both Romania and Moldavia.

Romanian is spoken by approximately 90.7% of the people living in the nation. The 1991 Constitution of Romania stipulated that Romanian have the status of official language in the country and therefore must be used for documents such as legal contracts, public educational material, as well as all government publications.

Common words and phrases in Romanian include “Salut” for a casual hello, “Mersi” meaning thank you, “Îmi pare rău” for sorry, and “Scuze” which translates to “excuse me”.

Although Romanian is the only official language in Romania and is spoken by over 90% of the population, the country is also home to a variety of minority language speakers. These include French (spoken by 23% of locals), English (31%), German (7%), Italian (7 %) as well as Hungarian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Russian, Croatian, Slovak, Bulgarian, and Turkish.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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Published on 2019-11-06


Capital	Bucharest
Languages	Romanian (official) 85.4%, Hungarian 6.3%, Romani 1.2%, other 1%, unspecified 6.1% (2011 est.)
Ethnic Groups	Romanian 83.4%, Hungarian 6.1%, Romani 3.1%, Ukrainian 0.3%, German 0.2%, other 0.7%, unspecified 6.1% (2011 est.)
Religion	Eastern Orthodox (including all sub-denominations) 81.9%, Protestant (various denominations including Reformed and Pentecostal) 6.4%, Roman Catholic 4.3%, other (includes Muslim) 0.9%, none or atheist 0.2%, unspecified 6.3% (2011 est.)
Government	Semi-presidential republic
Independance	9 May 1877 (independence proclaimed from the Ottoman Empire; independence recognized on 13 July 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin); 26 March 1881 (kingdom proclaimed); 30 December 1947 (republic proclaimed)
Area	238,391.00 km²
Water Area	8,500.00 km²
Land Area	229,891.00 km²
Population	21,599,736.00 Urbanization is not particularly high, and a fairly even population distribution can be found throughout most of the country, with urban areas attracting larger and denser populations; Hungarians, the country's largest minority, have a particularly strong presence in eastern Transylvania
Location	Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Ukraine
No. Bordering Countries	5
Bordering Countries	Bulgaria 605 km, Hungary 424 km, Moldova 683 km, Serbia 531 km, Ukraine 601 km
GDP(PPP)	$441,000,000,000.00 (USD)
GDP (Per Capita)	$22,300.00 (USD)
Export Partners	Its major export partners are Germany, Italy, and France.
Export Commodities	Its main exports are machinery and equipment, other manufactured goods, and agricultural products.
Import Partners	Its major import partners are Germany, Italy, and Hungary.
Import Commodities	Its major imports include machinery and equipment, chemicals, and fuels and minerals.
Climate	Ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast
Terrain	Central Transylvanian Basin is separated from the Moldavian Plateau on the east by the Eastern Carpathian Mountains and separated from the Walachian Plain on the south by the Transylvanian Alps
Learn More	Romania

Romania Languages

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