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Eurostat: Romania's population could drop to 19 mln people by 2030

At this moment Romania, as well as other European states, deals with a demographic issue due to 21 years of low birth rates.

An Eurostat report unveiled on Tuesday at the conference tackling the topic The Active Ageing of the Population: From Challenges to Advantages, organized by the United Nations Population Fund and the specialized sub-commission within the Senate, shows that in 20 years Romania's population will drop by 4 million residents compared to 1990 and by 2.2 million compared to Jan. 1, 2011.

Within the meeting, the officials talked about the fast-ageing pace of the population, with the gerontology experts saying that the ageing process sped up as early as since 1970 in the developed countries whereas in Romania it emerged later.

In the European context of the period 2000-2010, Romania has a low degree of ageing compared to other European countries, but it is still on the rise.

'The drop in the birth rate after 1989 reduced the young population and in consequence edged up the percentage of the older population, by increasing the level of demographic ageing,' said Professor Vasile Ghetau, Director of the Demographic Research Centre within the Romanian Academy.

According to him, the population over 60 years stood at 1.7 million in 1956 and amounted to 4.3 million in 2010; the increase practically accounted for about 10 percent.

Director of the International Institute on Ageing Professor Joseph Troisi, who also attended the conference, said that 2012 will stand for the year of the active ageing and that the older persons should not be treated 'as vulnerable persons'.

Troisi also reiterated the measures taken at the European level to formulate economic and social policies in order to find resources meeting the challenges related to the population's ageing.

Statistics: Romania's population decreases by almost 1.7 million during last two decades

Romania's population dropped by almost 1.7 million persons over the last two decades, due to the changes in the behaviour of the married couples towards the reproduction, to the plunge in the fertility, but also to the migration abroad and the rise in the mortality, National Statistics Institute (INS) president Professor Vergil Voineag told the United Nations Population Fund seminar, on Monday.

'Romania and most of Europe's countries are currently facing a worryingly demographic phenomenon of the birth rates fall and the aging of their population. Slowly, stealthily, but unavoidably, the fourth age gets ever more often and continually increasing,' said Voineag, quoted by Agerpres.

He pointed out that in Romania the number of people 75 of age, and elder went up from 920,000 in 1992, to 1.4 million last year. The number of those 80 of age and above, the so-called long-living ones represented 3 percent of the total population, in 2010, namely higher than in 1992 when they stood for 1.9 percent of the population. Women live longer, and are twice more than men.

Nationwide, the young population (0-14 y.o.) decreased from 22.7 percent, in 1992, to 15.1 percent, in 2010, and concomitantly, the number of the elderly (65 and up) grew from 11 percent, in 1992, to 14.95 in 2010. Likewise, the grown-up population (15-64) steadily increased from 66 to 70 percent, over the above-mentioned time span.

INS official also emphasized that Romania's population is expected to drop up to 19.2 million people, in 2030, and to round 16 million, two decades later. The number of the people elder than 65 will rise from 3.2 million, in 2010, to over 5.1 million in 2050, their weight in the total number of the population growing from 14.9 to 31.5 percent. The number of the people elder than 80 will also go up at a quick pace, namely from 4.4 percent in 2030, to 7.7 percent, in 2050.

The population's aging should lead to new approaches in the healthcare system and the social security services, as it is expected a rise in the demand in the psychology and geriatrics services and institutionalized care,' INS president concluded.

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Tags: population percent number million ageing people romanias