Source: Adapted from Ian M. Matley, Romania: A Profile, New York, 1970, p. 276.
Figure 5. Romania, Distribution of Ethnic Groups, 1966.
In the 1966 census Hungarians numbered 1.6 million, constituting 8.4 percent of the total population. Since 1947, when Romania acquired its present borders, the number of Hungarians within its borders has remained relatively stable, although their percentage in the total population has been declining.
Hungarians form the majority population in parts of Transylvania and in pockets along the Hungarian border. They form a significant minority of the population in the rest of Transylvania and in the Banat region. In 1952 the area of greatest Hungarian concentration in eastern Transylvania was designated the Hungarian Autonomous Region (Mures-Magyar) and was given considerable degree of self-government to deal with complaints of political and cultural oppression by Romanians. The region was eliminated in the administrative reorganization of 1968 (see ch. 9).
In 1971 it was estimated that slightly more than half of Romania's Hungarian minority still lived in rural areas. Several Transylvanian cities—including Cluj, Oradea, Baia-Mare, and Tirgu Mures—also have a high percentage of Hungarian inhabitants.
Hungarians first moved into the territory occupied by modern Romania in the ninth century as part of the Magyar invasion of the central European plain. Their number grew through colonization during the period of Hungarian rule of Transylvania, which began with the conquest of the area in the eleventh century and ended in 1918. One group of colonists—the Szeklers, or Szekelys—were settled in the eastern borderlands of Transylvania in the first part of the twelfth century to protect the plains from invaders. The ethnic origin of the Szeklers is in dispute. Some authorities claim they are Magyars; others claim they are non-Magyars who absorbed Magyar culture over long years of contact. During the Middle Ages, Szeklers were distinct from Magyars in political and social organization. Although the distinction between them and the Hungarians has disappeared in modern times and Romanian official statistics do not differentiate, Szekler culture is still considered more purely Magyar than that of other Hungarians who have absorbed influences from the West.
With the exception of some Szekler characteristics, the culture and language of the Hungarian minority in Romania are indistinguishable from those of their kinsmen in Hungary. They are, however, quite distinguishable from the Romanians. This distinction is accentuated by religious differences. Romanians are predominantly Orthodox, whereas more than half of the Hungarians in the country are Roman Catholic, most of the remainder are Calvinists, and some are Unitarians.