Terrain: central Transylvanian Basin is separated from the Plain of Moldavia on the east by the Carpathian Mountains and separated from the Walachian Plain on the south by the Transylvanian Alps
Natural resources: petroleum (reserves declining), timber, natural gas, coal, iron ore, salt
Land use: arable land: 43% permanent crops: 3% meadows and pastures: 19% forest and woodland: 28% other: 7%
Irrigated land: 34,500 sq km (1989 est.)
Environment:
current issues: soil erosion and degradation; water pollution; air
pollution in south from industrial effluents; contamination of Danube
delta wetlands
natural hazards: earthquakes most severe in south and southwest;
geologic structure and climate promote landslides
international agreements: party to - Air Pollution, Antarctic Treaty,
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental
Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands; signed, but not ratified -
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Law of the Sea
Note: controls most easily traversable land route between the Balkans,
Moldova, and Ukraine
@Romania:People
Population: 23,198,330 (July 1995 est.) note: the Romanian census of January 1992 gives the population for that date as 22.749 million; the government estimates that population declined in 1993 by 0.3%
Age structure:
0-14 years: 21% (female 2,413,933; male 2,534,019)
15-64 years: 67% (female 7,737,531; male 7,732,038)
65 years and over: 12% (female 1,604,210; male 1,176,599) (July 1995
est.)
Population growth rate: 0.09% (1995 est.)