The facts
OFFICIAL NAME: Romania
LOCATION: (Southeastern) Central Europe
TIME ZONE: Seven hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time (GMT + 2)
AREA: 92,043 sq. miles (238,391 sq. km)
FLAG OF ROMANIA: Three vertical stripes: blue, yellow and red.
POPULATION: 22 175 000 (January 2020, INS)
LARGEST CITIES: Bucharest (2.000.000+), Iasi (370,000+), Cluj Napoca (320.000+), Timisoara (330.000+), Constanta (315.000+), Craiova (303.000+), Galati (302.000+), Brasov (290.000+), Ploiesti (224,000+), Braila (205,000+), Oradea (221.000+).
Romania’s population lives in 320 cities and towns and 12,956 villages.
MAIN ETHNIC GROUPS: Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Gipsy 2.5%, German 0.2%, Ukrainian 0.2%
RELIGIONS: Christian Orthodox 81%, Roman Catholic 4.3%, Reformed 3%, Greek-Catholic 0.7%, Unitarian 0.3%, Jewish, other.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Romanian
CURRENCY: Leu ( plural Lei — pronunciation “lay” — abbreviations: Lei or RON)
CLIMATE: Temperate, four distinct seasons, similar to northeastern USA
CAPITAL: Bucharest ( București — pronunciation: boo koo re sh tea)