Demographics of Romania: Encyclopedia II - Demographics of Romania - Minorities

Demographics of Romania - Minorities

Hungarians (Szeklers and Magyars) (especially in Harghita, Covasna and Mureş) and Rromas (commonly known as ţigani) are the principal minorities, with a declining German population (in Timiş, Sibiu, Braşov) and smaller numbers of Slovaks, Serbs, Croats and Banat Bulgarians (in Banat), Ukrainians (in Bukovina), Greeks (Brăila, Constanţa), Turks and Tatars (in Constanţa), Armenians, Great Russians (Lippovans, in Tulcea) and others. Minority populations are greatest in Transylvania and the Banat, areas in the north and west, which were possesions of the Habsburg Empire (since 1867 the Austro-Hungarian Empire) until World War I. Even before the union with Romania, ethnic Romanians comprised the overall majority in Transylvania. However, ethnic Hungarians and Germans were the dominant urban population until relatively recently, and still are the majority in Harghita and Covasna counties.

Before World War II, minorities represented more than 28% of the total population. During the war that percentage was halved, largely by the loss of the border areas of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina (to the former Soviet Union -- now Moldova and Ukraine) and southern Dobrudja (to Bulgaria), as well as by the postwar flight or deportation of ethnic Germans.

Though Romanian troops participated in the destruction of the Jewish communities of Bessarabia and Bukovina, most Jews from Romania survived the Holocaust. Mass emigration, mostly to Israel and United States, has reduced the surviving Jewish community from over 300,000 to less than 6,000. In recent years, more than two-thirds of the ethnic Germans in Romania have emigrated to Germany, leaving behind roughly 60,000.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Minorities", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki