Romanian Language - Geographic Distribution

Geographic Distribution

See also: Romanian-American
Românofonia

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*Romanian is also an official language of the Latin Union.

Official and national language Official but not primary language National minority language EU Romanian diaspora

Geographic distribution of Romanian
Country Speakers
(%)		 Speakers
(native)		 Country Population
World
World 0.33% 23,351,100 7,035,000,000
Central and Eastern Europe
Romania 90.65% 17,263,561 19,043,767
Moldova 2 76.4% 2,588,355 3,388,071
Transnistria (Eastern Moldova) 3 31.9% 177,050 555,500
Vojvodina (Serbia) 1.5% 29,512 2,031,992
Ukraine 5 0.8% 327,703 48,457,000
Timočka Krajina (Serbia) 4 8.2% 58,221 712,050
Hungary 0.1% 8,480 10,198,315
Bulgaria 0.06% 4,575 7,364,570
Western Europe
Italy 1.5% 997,000 60,600,000
Spain 1.7% 895,970 46,661,950
Germany 0.2% 159,222 81,799,600
United Kingdom 0.145% 85,000 58,789,194
Portugal 0.50% 52,898 10,561,614
France 0.07% 50,000 65,350,000
Belgium 0.45% 45,877 10,296,350
Austria 0.45% 36,000 8,032,926
Greece 0.36% 35,295 9,903,268
Cyprus 2.91% 24,376 838,897
Ireland 0.45% 20,625 4,588,252
Rest of Europe 0.07% 75,000 114,050,000
CIS
Russia 1 0.12% 159,601 142,856,536
Kazakhstan 1 0.1% 14,666 14,953,126
Asia
Israel 3.7% 250,000 6,800,000
UAE 0.1% 5,000 4,106,427
Japan 0.002% 3,000 126,659,683
South Korea 0.0006% 300 50,004,441
The Americas
United States 0.12% 340,000 281,421,906
Canada 0.34% 110,000 32,207,113
Argentina 0.03% 13,000 40,117,096
Venezuela 0.036% 10,000 27,150,095
Brazil 0.002% 4,000 190,732,694
Oceania
Australia 0.09% 10,897 21,507,717
New Zealand 0.08% 3,100 4,027,947
Africa
South Africa 0.007% 3,000 44,819,778

Romanian is spoken mostly in Southeastern, Central and Eastern Europe, although speakers of the language can be found all over the world, mostly due to emigration of Romanian nationals and the return of immigrants to Romania back to their original countries. Romanian speakers account for 0.5% of the world's population, and 4% of the Romance-speaking population of the world.

Romanian is the single official and national language in Romania and Moldova, although it shares the official status at regional level with other languages in the Moldovan autonomies of Gagauzia and Transnistria. Romanian is also an official language of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia along with five other languages. Romanian minorities are encountered in Serbia (Timok Valley), Ukraine (Chernivtsi and Odessa oblasts), Hungary (Gyula) and Bulgaria (Vidin). Large immigrant communities are found in Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal.

As of 1995, the largest Romanian-speaking community in the Middle East is found in Israel, where Romanian is spoken by 5% of the population. Romanian is also spoken as a second language by people from Arabic-speaking countries who have studied in Romania. It is estimated that almost half a million Middle Eastern Arabs studied in Romania during the 1980s. Small Romanian-speaking communities are to be found in Kazakhstan and Russia. Romanian is also spoken within communities of Romanian and Moldovan immigrants in the United States, Canada and Australia, although they do not make up a large homogeneous community state-wide.

Read more about this topic:  Romanian Language

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