Recent Evolutions and Tendencies Concerning the Romanian Population: A Challenge for Central and Local Administration

• Author: Andrei Stănoiu
• Position: Associate Professor, Ph.D., Dean of the Social and Administrative Sciences Faculty, “Nicolae Titulescu” University
• Pages: 458-464

Page 458

Introduction

The transition period, which came after the 1989 December events, encountered profound changes in all the domains of social life in our country: starting with the economic, social and political life and finishing with the spiritual and moral one.

The complex connections and interactions between the population subsystem and the other subsystems of the global social system, as well as the multiple determinations and the social, political and cultural implications characteristic of the demographic phenomena and processes have generated profound and dramatic changes as to the demographic situation of our country. These changes may affect the whole future evolution of our country, and to have serious sometimes predictable consequences over all the social life sectors in Romania, as well as over the position and role of the state within the international context.

The changes that have already appeared, the ones we expect to come in the future, as well as the major risks associated to these changes should be a main concern for all the responsible factors existing at a central and local level, whose role is also to find solutions for mitigating these dangerous demographic evolutions and diminishing their destructive and disorganized effects.

Adopting new measures and initiating new actions also implies a good understanding of the topic in discussion.

Literature review

We have take into consideration the valuable contributions brought by the specialists in the field. First of all we should mention Academician Vladimir Trebici, who, immediately after 1990,Page 459 was the first to point out at the dangerous demographic evolutions that started to manifest and suggested that a new demographic policy should be adopted in relationship with the new social, economic and political conditions in our country. The remarkable study – “Is a new demographic policy necessary to be adopted in Romania?” – appeared in the magazine “Social Research Works”, nr. 7/1994. Academician Vladimir Trebici was the one who created the Centre for Demographic Studies within the Academy of Romania, a centre which inherits his name and whose role was to stimulate and promote demographic research and to suggest solutions for important decisions and ways of dealing with demographic problems. Professor Vasile Gheţău, the present director of the centre founded by Vladimir Trebici, has analyzed – as his mentor once did – the demographic situations in our country, bringing into evidence how serious our demographic problems are and mentioning the necessity to adopt urgent and efficient measures to at least reduce their extremely serious consequences. One should make reference to the following remarkable studies written by professor Gheţău: “Transition and its Demographic Impact”, the “Social Research Work” magazine, nr. 1/1994, “The Decrease of the Population and Demographic Ageing – One of the Great Contempt Acts in the face of Romania at the Beginning of the XXIst century”, in “Population and Society”, “Supplement”, nr. 1/2001, and “The Demographic Decline and the Future of Romanian Population. A perspective from 2007 over the Romanian population in the XXIst century”, Editura Alpha, MDN, 2007.

Besides these authors one can add others like: Tr. Rotariu, M. Ţarcă, V. Sora, I. Hristache, C. Mihăescu, who managed to accomplish profound, scientifically valuable studies on the demographic problems of Romania.

Unfortunately, the results of the numerous research works and the alarming signals pointed out by these works did not generate a significant effect on decision factors. These were either ignored or revealed lack of professionalism and amateurship. The few measures that were adopted were sporadic and quite ineffective.

What do the changes recorded at demographic level in our country consist of?

The first and the most spectacular change was the decrease of the total number of the population. Thus, if on July 1^st 1990, the Romanian population was of 23, 206, 720 inhabitants, then the census accomplished on January 7^th 1992 revealed a total number of 22, 810, 035, next on March 18^th the population number decreased at 21, 680, 974, and on January 1^st 2006, the number of inhabitants reached the level of 21, 610, 200 inhabitants. Thus, within 16 years, the Romanian population decreased with about 1.6 million inhabitants, respectively 9.3%. This decrease was mainly generated by the dramatic decrease of the birth rate from 16‰ alive born inhabitants in 1989 to 11.9 ‰ inhabitants in 1992, and to 9.7 ‰ inhabitants in 2002 and 10.4 ‰ inhabitants in 2006. This decrease was determined by a series of factors like: legislative factors (the repealing of the laws that prohibited abortion), social and economic factors (the decrease of the living standard, the unemployment generated by the closing of factories...