ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter focuses on the second-largest country in Eastern Europe after Poland, Romania. An EU member since 2007, Romania has a population of 20 million (see Table 1.1) and has been undergoing a process of transition from a former centralised economy to a market economy since the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Romania’s population is declining and aging due to low birth rates and outward migration. It decreased by about 1.7 million people between 1990 and 2007, the equivalent of a 7.2 per cent population loss (GovRo and UNDP, 2008). At this pace, it has been estimated that Romania’s population will plummet from 20.8 million in 2013 to 15 million by 2050 (GovRo and UNDP, 2008). This will have major implications for the overall size of the labour force and, thus, Romania’s economic outlook.
