Romania is losing one million inhabitants every year fueled by a dramatically declining birthrate and an ageing population, according to a UN Population Division report.
In just one decade it will reach the level it was at after World War II, according to the July report.
In just ten years from now, the report forecasts a population of 17.9 million, similar to what it was in 1956 when there were 17.4 million residents.
Projections show that every ten years Romania loses about one million inhabitants with the country being among the top countries facing a sharp decline of its working-age population.
The year 2031 is the point when the number of seniors will surpass that of young people, and the gap will deepen further after that.
Ionuț Dumitru, chief economist of Raiffeisen Bank and former head of the Fiscal Council notes that Romania will register the steepest demographic declines in Europe.
“The worst part is that this very sharp decline will affect the active population in the coming years. There will be a lot of people retiring who were born in and after 1968 (Eds: the year Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu banned abortion and birth control) retiring and a decrease in the active population,” he told Hotnews.
Experts attribute the population decline to three factors: increasing average age, decreasing birth rates, and increased access to medical care, leading to higher life expectancy.
The average age of the population is rising not only in Romania but globally, as people postpone getting married and having children. In Romania’s case, however, there will be a sudden shift in the ratio of employed to inactive people who are known as the “decretei,” born after the Ceausescu’s abortion ban.
The aging population will impact society in several ways: the economy will grow at a slower pace due to a lack of labor force and reduced consumption and the state budget will shrink as tax revenues dry up.
If the current public pension system isn’t reformed, the burden of state pensions will become increasingly difficult to manage. Health costs associated with an aging population will also increase.
Romania’s population expected to decline by almost 9% by 2050
