In analyzing the demographic processes concerning ethnic minorities - in our case
the ethnic Hungarians and Roma from Romania - we encounter some difficulties.
There are different ethnic communities living in Romania: according to the last
census, from 2002, besides the majority (the ethnic Romanians, about 90 %), the biggest
ethnic minorities are the Hungarians (6,6%) and Roma (Gipsy, 2,5%). These
communities, and usually the main ethnic minorities from Eastern Europe did not
immigrate to their present country during the last century. An important number of ethnic
groups which did not belong to the main national group (Romanians), such as Hungarians
from Transylvania, Germans etc, received Romanian citizenship in the 1920s, not
because of emigration but as a result of a shifting of frontiers.
Since then, demographic data have been collected in Romania, including those
related to ethnic belonging and vital statistics.
In this paper, we would like to answer to following questions:
1. What is the relevance and validity of ethnic distribution statistical data in
Romania?
2. What is the degree of correspondence between different data sources (register
data of vital statistics and census) for main minority groups?