Countries with significant Romanian population and descendants (as of 2020).
Romania
+ 1,000,000
+ 100,000
+ 10,000
+ 1,000
The Romanian diaspora is the ethnically Romanian population outside Romania and Moldova. The concept does not usually include the ethnic Romanians who live as natives in nearby states, chiefly those Romanians who live in Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Therefore, the number of all Romanians abroad is estimated at about 4–12 million people, depending on one's definition of the term "Romanian" as well as the inclusion respectively exclusion of ethnic Romanians living in nearby countries where they are indigenous. The definition of "who is a Romanian?" may range from rigorous conservative estimates based on self-identification and official statistics to estimates that include people of Romanian ancestry born in their respective countries as well as people born to various ethnic-minorities from Romania. As of 2015/16, over 97% of Romanian emigrants resided in OECD countries; and about 90% of Romanian emigrants in OECD countries lived in Europe, with the most common country of residence being Italy.[1] The vast majority of Romanian emigrants are based in just ten countries, with the most common countries being Italy, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Hungary, France and Canada.[1]
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, emigration was liberalized and during the 1990s the main destination countries for Romanian emigrants were Germany, Hungary, Israel, the United States and Canada.[1] After further liberalization in 1999, 2002 and especially after Romania entered the European Union in 2007, Italy, Spain, the UK and other EU countries became major destinations.[1][2]
Size of the Romanian diaspora
Italy is the most common destination for Romanian emigrants, with over one million Romanians living there.
In December 2013, Cristian David, the government minister for the Department for Romanians Everywhere, declared that a new reality illustrates that between 6–8 million Romanians live outside Romania's borders. This includes 2–3 million indigenous Romanians living in neighbouring states such as Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, the Balkans and especially the Republic of Moldova. The number also includes circa 2.7–3.5 million Romanians in Western Europe.[4]
Furthermore, the Romanian diaspora emerged as a powerful political force in elections since 2009.[5][6] For the 2014 presidential election, voting in the diaspora was poorly organized and resulted in protests in several major European cities. The diaspora vote played a key role in the final result.[6] 5 years later, in the 2019 presidential election, then center-right candidate and incumbent President Klaus Iohannis was once again overwhelmingly voted by the Romanian diaspora from all over the world.
The numbers are based on official statistical data in the respective states where such Romanians reside or – wherever such data is unavailable – based on official estimates made by the Romanian department for Romanians abroad (figures for Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Portugal, and Turkey are for Romanian citizens, and may include individuals of any ethnicity).
Ethnic Romanians are primarily present in Europe and North America. However, there are ethnic Romanians in Turkey, both in the Asian and European parts of the country, descendants of Wallachian settlers invited by the Ottoman Empire from the early fourteenth to the late nineteenth centuries. Furthermore, there are about 2,000 Romanian immigrants in Japan since the late twentieth century.[7]
Distribution by country
Romanian diaspora inside the EU between 2008 and 2012
1,079,726 (including naturalized)[9] 627.478 (Romanian citizens)[10] 539,418 (residents of Spain who were born in Romania as of 2022)[11]
Immigrants and Romanian citizens of all ethnic groups. The first number includes all Romanians in Spain, thus taking into account second and third generation Romanians or nationalized ones that count as Spanish in the census. The second number takes into account just Romanian citizens. The third number represents Romanian born residents in Spain. (additional 17,868 Moldovans)
539,000 people in England and Wales were born in Romania in 2021;[14] additional Romanians in Scotland and Northern Ireland; there are also naturalized second and third generation Romanians in the UK
According to the 2021 Census, there were 215,885 Canadian residents declaring themselves of Romanian origin;[17]Romanian language was the mother tongue of 93,160 of Canadian residents.[18] There were 86,770 Canadian residents who were born in Romania.[19]
Immigrants (additional 10,391 Moldovans). There are also 209,000 Aromanians[27] and 3,000 Megleno-Romanians[28] in Greece; however, they are not considered an ethnic but a linguistic/cultural minority.
There are 23,393 Romanian citizens in Portugal as of 2023.[37] According to Eurostat as many as 7,000 Romanians have acquired Portuguese citizenship since 2008, thus are excluded from the number of Romanian nationals in Portugal.[38][39](additional 5,243 Moldovan foreigners as of 2022; since 2008 more than 20,000 Moldovans became Portuguese citizens)[39]
There live up to 300,000 indigenous Aromanians, but Albanian authorities do not recognize them as Romanian minority.[63]
Total
4,321,496
The estimate is the sum of the countrywide estimates listed. To this are added 1,618,650 people belonging to ethnic groups Romanian authorities claim to be part of the Romanian population (e.g., Moldovans, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians). The total estimate is roughly 5.9 million.
Access instruction: On the sidebar "Data by theme", select by click "Population and Households | Foreigners and Immigrants | Resident foreigners on 1st January - Citizenship | Italy, regions, provinces – country of citizenship". After a few seconds, data will appear on the right-hand side table. Find column "Romania", row "2021 total".
^"Menschen in Wien"(PDF). Statistiches Jahrbuch der stadt Wien – 2017 (in German). Archived from the original(PDF) on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
