Romania is the biggest country in southeast Europe by population. It has an area of . It is the twelfth-largest country in Europe. Most of Romania's border with Serbia and Bulgaria is made by the Danube. The Danube joins the Prut River. The Prut River makes the Moldovan–Romanian border. The Danube then flows into the area of the Black Sea inside Romania. This makes the Danube Delta. The delta is a biosphere reserve and a biodiversity World Heritage Site. Some of the other major rivers in Romania are the Siret, the Olt, and the Mureş. The Siret River runs from the north to the south of Moldavia. The Olt River runs from the Carpathian Mountains to Oltenia. The Mureş runs through Transylvania from the east to the west.
The land in Romania is made up of equal parts of mountains, hills, and low-lying areas. The Carpathian Mountains make up a big part of the center of Romania. Fourteen of its mountain ranges are taller than . The tallest mountain in Romania is Moldoveanu Peak, with a peak altitude of .
The Danube is the longest river in Romania. Its length inside Romania is about . That is almost half of the length of the entire Danube. Almost all of the rivers in Romania are either direct or tributaries of the Danube.
Romania has a climate that changes between temperate and continental climates. The reason for the climate changes is because Romania is near the coast. Romania has four different seasons. The average temperature during the year is in southern Romania and in the northern part.
Lots of rain and snow falls on the highest western mountains. Most of this falls as snow. In the southern parts of the country, the amount of rain and snow that falls is around .
The lowest temperature ever taken in Romania was , at Braşov in 1944. The highest temperature ever recorded in Romania was , near Calafat in the 1950s.
These are the development regions of Romania:
The official language of Romania is Romanian. The Romanian language is an Eastern Romance language.
Romania has its own culture because of where it is found. It is the point where 3 different areas meet: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans. Romanian culture is a mix of all these areas. The culture of Romania was influenced by the Greeks, Romans, and Slavs.
Romania is a secular state. This means Romania has no national religion. The biggest religious group in Romania is the Romanian Orthodox Church. It is an autocephalous church inside of the Eastern Orthodox communion. In 2002, this religion made up 86.7% of the population. Other religions in Romania include Roman Catholicism (4.7%), Protestantism (3.7%), Pentecostalism (1.5%) and the Romanian Greek-Catholicism (0.9%).
Bucharest is the capital of Romania. It also is the biggest city in Romania, with a population of over 2 millions peoples.
There are 5 other cities in Romania that have a population of more than 300,000 people. These are Iaşi, Cluj-Napoca, Timişoara, Constanţa, and Craiova. Romania also has 5 cities that have more than 200,000 people living in them: Galaţi, Braşov, Ploieşti, Brăila, and Oradea.
Thirteen other cities in Romania have a population of more than 100,000 people.
Romania joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Romania's economy is healthy. Currently, Romania makes around $350 billion in Gross domestic product and a GDP per capita of $16,540.
Long into the 1900s, Romania was still a largely agricultural country. During Communism 1947-1989, the country had planned economy. The transition from planned economy to a market economy after the communist regime led to economic collapse in the 1990s, the reasons was that more money was printed, expensive prices and substantial privatization of the companies, which initially leads to skyrocketing unemployment. The reforms in the 1990s allowed foreign investors for the first time to buy land in Romania. When it was going explosively good for the industry in the Latin countries such as France, Italy and Spain, these countries began to trade with Romania because it is favorite voice country for them to grow in. Foreign companies expanding in Romania since then, and spurs the market.
The Romanian school is obligatory for 10 years. Children also have the opportunity to be part of a voluntary pre-school at an early age 3–6 years. After school, students can voluntarily take the entrance exam to high school, which has a range of practical and theoretical lines. There are over 40 higher educational institutions, including five universities and five technical colleges. Tuition is free and is a hot political commitment even at the university. The country's minorities have the opportunity to receive instruction in their native language. Since 1989, education has been reformed. But it has been slow and the standard of education varies greatly in different parts of the country, education has improved the standard of urban compared to rural areas where quality can be very low. Romania participates fully in the EU's education program.
The unemployment rate in Romania is five per-cent and has been low for many years.
The living standards were very low at the end of the Communist era, but the situation was just only improved a little bit during the 1990s. On the contrary, the living significantly due caused by the large privatization of jobs that resulted in high unemployment and rising prices. In later years lived yet 2010 nearly 10 percent of the population in absolute poverty and of these, 90% live in rural areas. The State social insurance system have relatively broad coverage but resources are extremely small.
Reforms have been initiated and in 1999 the health insurance became privatized and paid by the employers and the employees. Several thousand local trade unions were founded after the revolution, which were later amalgamated (combined) into federations. These unions and federations have helped organise students, pensioners and the unemployed; because these groups of people all have similar needs, concerns and goals.
By the first quarter of 2011 the average monthly household income is 2,318 Romanian leu (equivalent to approximately £862 USD).
The different between countryside and urban area may vary the income is 36 per-cent higher in the urban area than in the countryside.
The pension system is reformed.
The most worrying thing is the fact that there are more pensioners than the number of working people. because many who dismissed during the privatizations had per-retirement. Romanian Pensioners average pension at the month is at about 190 euros (equivalent to approximately £250-300 USD). The current low average retirement age (55 years for men and 57 years for women) will be gradually increased until 2014, when it gets 60 years for women and 65 years for men.
Many of the country's Gypsies have no identity cards and are therefore excluded from the social benefit systems, schools and health care. The State-run health care is free, but the care system is neglected and has deteriorated in recent years due to lack of resources and underpaid staff. In many cases,the patients paying "under the table" to get treatment. here is evidence to suggest that a patient's wealth plays an important role in how they receive medical treatment.
Historically, Romanian researches and inventors have made notable contributions to several fields, such as: aeronautics, medicine, mathematics, computer science/engineering, physics, biophysics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology. In the history of flight, Traian Vuia and Aurel Vlaicu built and flew some of the earliest successful aircraft, while Henri Coandă discovered the Coandă effect of fluidics. Preceding him, Elie Carafoli was a pioneering contributor to the field of aerodynamics in the world.