Short Presentation

Geography

Romania is situated in the Northern hemisphere at the crossing of the parallel 45 Northern latitude with meridian 25 Eastern longitude.

Romanian territory spreads between 48º 15‘ 06“ and 43º 37‘ 07“ latitude north.

Romania is also situated in the Eastern hemisphere spreading between 20º 15‘ 44“ and 29º 41‘ 24“ longitude east.

Meridian 25º Eastern longitude marks middle of distance between the Atlantic Ocean and Ural Mountains and crosses Romania at 90 km west of its capital city.

Parallel 45º Northern latitude is midway between Equator and North Pole, crossing Romania 70 km north of its capital city, Bucharest.

The geographical position of Romania is in the South-East Central Europe north of the Balkan Peninsula at the junction of important west-east and north-south European trade routes.

Romania is bordered to the east by Republic of Moldova and to the north by Ukraine, the southeast by the Black Sea, the south by Bulgaria, the southwest by Serbia and West by Hungary.

Romania is divided into four geographical regions. Transylvania and Moldova compose the northern half of the country, which is divided down the middle by the north-south strip of the Carpathians. South of the east-west line of the Carpathian Mountains lie the plains of Wallachia bordered to the south by the Danube river which also marks the border to Bulgaria.

Romania's capital city is Bucharest. Romania’s coastline is along the Black Sea, incorporating the port of Constanta and the Danube Delta.

Climate

Romania has a temperate continental climate. Therefore, Romania enjoys warm summers with occasional heat waves and cold winters when temperatures often drop below zero. During the summer humidity is low, but rainstorms can ocurr occasionally.

However, climatic conditions are to some extent altered by the varied relief of Romania.

The Carpathian Mountains act as a barrier to warm Atlantic air currents, blocking their penetration to the northeast. Such oceanic influences are though present in the west and center of the country causing for milder winters and heavier rainfall.

The Carpathians also block the continental influences of the Russian plains to the north causing for colder winters and less rain to the south and southeast.

Mediterranean influences are present in the extreme southeast causing for a milder, maritime climate.

Average annual temperatures in Romania:

• 11°C in the south
• 8°C in the north

Temperatures in Bucharest range from -29°C in January to 29°C in July.

Average temperatures in Bucharest:

• -3°C in January
• 23°C in July

Although the rain falls in adequate quantities throughout the country, its volume decreases from west to east and from mountains to plains. Some mountain areas receive more than 1,010 millimeters of precipitation each year.

Average annual precipitation:

• 635 millimeters in central Transylvania
• 521 millimeters in Iasi, Moldova
• 381 millimeters in Constanta on the coast of the Black Sea

Population

21,680,976 in March 2003 according to National Statistics Institute.

Ethnic structure

• 89.5% Romanian
• 6.6% Hungarian
• 2.5% Roma
• 0.3% Serbian
• 0.3% Ukrainian
• 0.3% German
• 0.2% Russian
• 0.2% Turkish
• 0.4% other

Language

Romanian, a Romance language, has features of Latin with Slavic, German, Greek, Hungarian and Turkish influences. Other languages spoken are Hungarian and German.

Religion

preliminary data, March 2003

• 86.7% - Eastern Orthodox
  
• 4.7% - Roman-Catholic
• 3.2% - Protestant
  
• 0.9% - Greek-Catholic
  
• 0.1% - Evangelical
  
• 0.3% - Unitarian
  
• 0.4% - other religions

Major cities