Romania’s population, studied by domicile, reached 21.739 million people on January 1, 2025, down 0.5% compared to the same date of the previous year, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Monday.

Official statistics reveal that, in the urban area, the population numbered 12.05 million people, down 1.2% compared to January 1, 2024. At the same time, the population by domicile in the rural area totalled 9.68 million people, increasing slightly against January 1, 2024 (0.4%).

According to the same source, on January 1 this year, the female population stood at 11.13 million people, down 0.5% compared to the same date of the previous year. At the same time, the male population was 10.6 million people, down 0.5% compared to the same date of the previous year.

INS data show that the demographic aging process continued in 2024, with a decrease of 0.3 percentage points in the share of young people (0-14 years old) and at the same time an increase of 0.4 percentage points in the share of the elderly population (65 years old and over) in the total population. Thus, the demographic aging index increased from 126.8 on January 1, 2024 to 132.4 elderly people per 100 young people on January 1, 2025.

According to the INS data, in the analyzed period, the average age of the population was 42.9 years, 0.4 years higher than on January 1, 2024, and the median age was 43.7 years, up 0.5 years compared to January 1, 2024.

On January 1, 2025, the largest share in the total population was held by the age group 45-49 years (8.6%). The same age group had the largest share among both females (8.3%) and males (9.0%).

The share of the 0-4 year old group was 4.2%, lower than that of the 5-9 year old (5%), 10-14 year old (4.9%) and 15-19 year old (5.3%).

AGERPRES