“Romanian President Traian Basescu warned Tuesday that Romania's population was dwindling and retirees would place an increasingly heavy burden on the country's working population.

‘Romania urgently needs to revise its demographic policies,’ he said at a conference on population and development in … Sibiu. He said that authorities should do more to support women who have young children. …

Despite improvements in the economy, birth rates have fallen especially in villages, where poverty is higher and many younger women have traveled to Western Europe to find work. Almost half of Romania's population lives in rural areas. …” [Associated Press/Factiva]

AFP reports that “…Basescu said Tuesday he was worried his country was ‘going through a demographic desert’ because of a drop in birthrates since 1990. …

‘Today, we count only one child per woman. If this birth rate remains as it is, we will only have 16 million residents in Romania in 2050, 11 million in 2075 and 8.5 million in 2100,’ he warned. … [He] also warned against the aging population: ‘In 2050, we will have 145 pensioners for every 100 active persons.’ …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Rompres adds that “… Attending the opening of the …‘Romania's population - where to?’ [Conference] the chief of the state underscored that demography is a vital issue. …

According to the President, the resumption of the upward trend of Romania's population 'is not the problem of a certain government or party, but of the entire country, it is the problem of today's and future generations.”…” [Rompres (Romania)/Factiva] // World Bank


Publication date: 20 September 2007   

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