Romania's population falls to 21.646 million on 1 January 2026 as demographic ageing index rises (statistics)
Romania's permanent resident population reached 21.646 million people as of 1 January 2026, down 0.5% compared with the same period of the previous year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS) data published on Thursday.
The urban and female population remain in the majority, accounting for 55.2% and 51.2% of the total respectively.
According to the INS, as of 1 January 2026, the population by residence in urban areas stood at around 11.948 million people, down 0.9% compared with the first month of 2025. At the same time, the rural population totalled 9.697 million people over the period analysed, marking a slight increase of 0.04% compared with the reference period.
Official data show that the female population stood at 11.091 million people, down 0.5% year on year, while the male population followed the same trend, at 10.555 million people (-0.5%).
Moreover, the process of demographic ageing continued in 2025, with a slight decrease (by 0.3 percentage points) in the share of young people (aged 0-14) and, simultaneously, an increase (by 0.3 percentage points) in the share of the elderly population (aged 65 and over) in the total population. The demographic ageing index rose from 131.7 (as of 1 January 2025) to 136.6 elderly persons per 100 young people as of 1 January 2026.
The average age of the population was 43.2 years, up by 0.4 years compared with 1 January 2025, while the median age stood at 44.3 years, increasing by 0.5 years.
As of 1 January 2026, the largest share of the total population was held by the 45-49 age group (8.6%), which also recorded the highest share among the male population (9%).
Among females, the highest shares are held by the 45-49 and 55-59 age groups (8.2%).
The share of the 0-4 age group was 4%, lower than that of the 5-9 (4.9%), 10-14 (4.8%) and 15-19 (5.2%) age groups.
The INS mentioned that data on the population by residence, as of 1 January 2026, will be available down to locality level (municipality, city and commune) in the TEMPO online central database in April 2026. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Rodica State)
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