Romania

Latin-rite Catholics in Romania are members of an ethnic Hungarian minority, a small community surrounded by Orthodox Christians in one of Europe’s most religiously observant societies. Catholics live mostly in homogenous enclaves in the eastern part of the Transylvania region. There is a sense that these areas are a kind of Catholic homeland. There is a widely-known legend (believed by many ordinary Catholics to be historically true) that the Virgin Mary appeared to a group of Catholics defending this region against an invading Protestant army. An annual pilgrimage to the site of this apparition helps bolster the sense that Catholicism has a “home” in this region. Read more...

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Marc Roscoe Loustau, "Risking a Miracle: Transcendentally-Oriented Improvisation and Catholic Charismatics’ Involvement in a Transylvanian Canonization," The Journal of Contemporary Religion 31 (2016): 335-50, https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2016.1206229.

Marc Roscoe Loustau, Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania: Reforming Apostles, Contemporary Anthropology of Religion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

    Religious Affiliation
    Chart source: Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 2010
    Total Population
    19,580,634 1
    Urban
    54.00% 1
    Rural
    46.00% 1
    Immigrants as % of Population
    1.2% 2
    Homicides
    1.49 per 100,000 people (global median 6.9) 3
    Level of Public Corruption
    57 (1=lowest, 176=highest corruption) 4
    Gender Equality in the Economy, Health, Education and Politics
    76 (1=most equal, 144=least equal) 7
    Fertility Rate
    1.51 births per adult woman 5
    Children Who Do Not Live to Age 5
    1.10% 5
    Life Expectancy at Birth
    75 years 5
    Adult Literacy Rate
    98.60% 5
    Internet Users
    54% 5
    Gross National Income per Capita
    US$9,520 5
    Population Living Below US$1.90 per Day
    0.0% 5

    These statistics are derived from the Vatican's official publication, Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022). The numbers may differ from data reported by other sources on this site.

    Baptized Catholics
    1,422,000
    Baptized Catholics as % of Total Population
    7.36
    Baptisms per Year (Under age 7)
    8,949
    Baptisms per Year (Over age 7)
    159
    First Communions per Year
    5,692
    Confirmations per Year
    5,293
    Students Enrolled in Catholic Primary Schools
    3,640
    Students Enrolled in Catholic Secondary Schools
    7,853
    Students Enrolled in Catholic Higher Education
    899
    Church Marriages per Year
    2,714
    Church Marriages in Which Both Spouses are Catholics
    1,802
    Priests
    1,966
    Women Religious (Nuns & Sisters)
    986
    Catholics per Priest
    723
    Parishes
    1,879
    Catholic Hospitals
    14
    Homes for Aged, Handicapped, Invalids
    45
    • 1 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.
    • 2 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2015 revision.
    • 3 United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Homicide Statistics 2015.
    • 4 Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2016.
    • 5 UNICEF, State of the World's Children, 2016.
    • 6 Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022).
    • 7 World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report, 2016.