Romania’s population declined by 5,365 people in June this year due to demographic factors, especially because of declining birth rates, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS).
By comparison, the population dropped by 2,636 people in the same month of 2018.
A total of 14,506 babies were born in Romania in June 2019, 1,486 fewer than in May and also 2,154 fewer compared to the same month of 2018, News.ro reported. Meanwhile, in the same month, 19,871 deaths were registered in Romania, 1,632 fewer than in May and 575 more than in June 2018.
Data from the European statistical office Eurostat released about a month ago said that Romania is one of the EU Member States that recorded the largest population decreases in 2018, a year in which the population of the entire EU increased by 1.1 million people.
The largest population decreases were recorded in Latvia (-7.5‰), Bulgaria and Croatia (both -7.1‰), Romania (-6.6‰), and Lithuania (-5.3‰).
According to an INS report, Romania had a resident population of 19.53 million inhabitants at January 1, 2018, and 9.97 million (51.1% of the total) were women.
The Romanian Orthodox Church supports and encourages families to give birth to children and bring them up in accordance with the biblical commandment (Genesis 1:28). At the same time, the Church warns against and condemns the increasing number of abortions in today’s society. Abortion, considered a sin, was the main cause of the deaths in 2018.
‘If we, the Romanian people, continue with (performing) abortions, which sum up to millions from 1960 until present, we will perish as a nation. We are in a demographic decline,’ cautioned the Patriarch of Romania during his homily on the feast of the Annunciation of the Theotokos.
The Church takes care not only of the spiritual education and protection of children, but also of the concrete support, through many of the 815 social institutions and services existing in the Romanian Patriarchate.
Patriarch Daniel has always entrusted women faced with pregnancy decisions to the Mother of God, calling her ‘a Protectress of women who give birth to children, who become mothers, a Protectress of the children’s parents, and a Protectress of childless families who adopt and bring up children.’
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
