Sources of data

In Romania it is possible to get accurate information regarding the number of members belonging to a Church or religion. This is thanks to the national censuses that are carried out every ten years where people are asked what their religious affiliation is.
The first concerns over demographic statistics appeared in 1859, when the Union of the Principalities took place with the election of a single monarch for Walachia and Moldavia, Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Despite the lack of precision, the general population census of 1859 represented a marker and a criterion of comparison for all the censuses that were carried out every five years after that. As of 1892, an almanac of religions and their statistical and administrative situation was published each year. It wasn’t until December 1930 that the first general census of unified Romania (1918) took place, under the direction of the outstanding Romanian sociologist Dimitrie Gusti. The main goal was to establish, as precisely as possible, the distribution of the Romanian population according to ethnic group and record its religious affiliation.

D 2 October 2012    ALaurenţiu Tănase

The State Secretariat for Worship published the document Statul și cultele religioase (The State and Worship) which presents the main areas and issues in which religions are implicated in the Romanian society today. As a result, useful information can be found on the religious groups and organisations recognised in Romania, the evolution of the confessional structure in Romania, a comparative perspective of the relations between the State and religions in democratic countries, the Romanian legislation concerning religious life, and issues concerning religions that are emerging in public debate.

A similar document, available in English, was made public in 2015: State and Religions in Romania.

D 8 January 2019    AGabriel Birsan

In 2023, the National Institute of Statistics has published the final results concerning the ethnocultural demographic characteristics of the Romanian population from the 2021 census.

The final results of the National census of October 2011 (in Romanian) had been officially released in 2013. The results of the population according to religion (by departments, municipalities, cities and villages) and population by ethnicity and religion are available (in French).

See also: "What does the 2011 Census tell us about Religion?" by the National Institute of Statistics of Romania.

D 5 May 2023    AGabriel Birsan