Name: ROMANIA

Location: Europe, 45° N latitude and 25° E longitude
Time zone: GMT+2 (daylight saving GMT+3)
Area: 238,391 Sqkm
Population: 22,408,393 (54,6% urban, July 2001)
An estimated 8 millions Romanians live outside Romanian borders
Measures: Metric (Celsius for temperature)
Currency: Leu (pl. Lei) - intl. coding RON -

Form of government: Republic
Two-chamber Parliament: Senate (upper chamber)
Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber)

Language: Romanian
Romanian language belongs to the Romance family of languages. It has 77% lexical similarities with Italian, 75% with French, 72% with Portuguese and 71% with Spanish. Romanian vocabulary has Slavic, Turkish and French influences.
Foreign languages commonly spoken (which do not belong to ethnic minorities): English and French

Capital Bucuresti (Bucharest)
With an area of 238 sqkm and a population of 1,996,814 inhabitants (July 2001), it stands by far as the largest city of Romania. it is situated in the southern part of the country, in the Romanian plains, at 85 m altitude. First written record at 1459, by Prince Vlad Tepes (Vlad The Impaler, known as Dracula). Capital of Walachia between 17th and 19th century, of Romania since 1862

Territorial organization:
Romania is divided into 42 Counties. Localities are ranked as municipality, town, commune, vilage, hamlet.
Bucuresti, the capital, is the only city divided into 6 sectors.

Relief:
Almost all major forms of relief – excepting oceans and deserts – are represented in Romania: Carpatian Mountains, Transylvanian Tableland, Romanian Plains, Danube River, Danube Delta, Black Sea (31% mountains, 36% hills and plateaus, 33% plains, meadows, seashore). The highest point: Peak Moldoveanu, 2544 m. in the Fagaras Mountains.

Vegetation and fauna:
Vegetation is specific to temperate climate - fir-tree, oak, beech, lime-tree, elm, poplar, willow. Forest clearings, plains and alpine meadows are filled with various species of flowers, many of them commonly used in herbal medicine.
A particular presence is Danube Delta, with its marsh fauna and vegetation.

Fauna is represented by large mammals (bear, deer, boar) predators (wolf, fox, weasel) and rodents (rabbit, squirrel, hedgehog). Snakes, frogs, carps, pikes, trout, sturgeon, catfish, dolphins, can be found in rivers, lakes, ponds and seawaters. Birds are abundant, from common sparrow and dove, to hawk, swan and the rare birch cock. Various insects, including wild bees, buzz over flowers.

Climate:
The climate is continental-temperate, with mild springs, hot summers with sudden showers and thunderstorms, rainy autumns and cold, cloudy winters, with heavy snows in the central and Northern areas. Temperatures can get peaks as high as 40°C in the Southern plains or as low as -20°C in Northern mountains.

Religion:
Christian Orthodox (86%), Christian Catholics (6%), various Protestant rites (6%), Jews, Muslims, etc.

Minorities:
Hungarians, Gypsies (Rromanes), Germans, Turks, Tartars, Jews, Greeks, Armenians, Serbs, Ukrainians, Polish.

GDP/C: 1,585USD (1999)
Birth rate: 9.8% (July 2001)
Mortality: 11.6% (July 2001)
Unemployment: 8,4% (July 2001)