Difficulties in Researching the Demographic Behaviour of Ethnic

Hungarian and Roma Communities from Romania

Valér VERES, PhDBabes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Sociodemographic realities in Romania

90

6,62,5

0,9

Romanians

Hungarians from Transylvania

Roma (gypsy)

Other

Out of 21,7 million people(free self decl.):90% ethnic Romanians 6,6% ethnic Hungarians2,5% Roma (gypsy)*0,9% other ethnic groups

Transylvania: Central and Western part of Romania

I Transylvania lives about 7.7 million of people:

78% ethnic Romanians

19% ethnic Hungarians

3,8% roma (gypsy)* 1,5% other ethnic

groups (german, serb, ukrainian)

The research questions

What is the relevance and validity of ethnic distribution statistical data in Romania?

What is the degree of correspondence between different data sources (register data of vital statistics and census) for main minority groups?

General characteristics of data collection by ethnicity

The demographic data have been collected in Romania, including those related to ethnic belonging and vital statistics, based on self declaration, without any “objective control”, beginning to 1956 census.

The quality of the data were influenced by the national policy of the state: the building of the nation-state

The number of the Hungarians was always relevant, but until the census from 2002, the e. Hungarian opinion liders considered census data not correct, because they considered to be under-registrated the number of ethnic Hungarians.

The number of the Roma population was always underregistered – mainly because of the low self-declaration

The evolution of he proportion of ethnic Hungarians from Romania

Year Ethnicity Mother tongue

Number Percent Number Percent

1910 * * 1 653 943[1] *

1930 1 425 507 10 1 554 525 10,8

1956 1 587 675 9 1 653 700 9,5

1966 1 619 592 8,5 1 651 873 8,6

1977 1 713 900[2] 7,9 1 720 630 8

1992 1 624 959 7,1 1 639 135 7,2

2002 1 434 377 6,6 1 447 000 6,7

[1] Az akkori Magyarországon végzett népszámlálás, így az adat csak Erdélyre vonatkozik.[2] Kerekített és korrigált adat az 1992-es népszámlálási közlemény I. kötetében.

The quality of the data registration and the number of ethnic Hungarians from Romania

Analyzing the evolution of the number of ethnic Hungarians from Transylvania during the 20th Century, we may observe a gradual decrease in relative numbers.

In absolute numbers we can observe a first decrease between 1910 and 1930, probably mostly after the Trianon treaty when Transylvania became part of Romania and a lot of ethnic Hungarians left the region (1-200 000).

Another decrease is only virtual, because a significant part of the population could change their identity or only the declaration about their identity. In fact, the following table shows that in 1910, and generally in Census data from Hungary, we have no data according to ethnicity, only about the mother tongue, or the language a person speaks best.

The quality of the data registration and the number of ethnic Hungarians from Romania (2)

The absolute number of ethnic Hungarians decreased at first only since the 1977 census data, until 1992, with about 89 000 persons, with 5,2 percents.

The reasons: The Hungarian-speaking population is more numerous in

all Censuses than the number of ethnic Hungarians. The highest difference was in 1930, i.e. 129018 persons. This difference decreased gradually: identity change, authority influences, to not declare as ethnic Hungarians

The most serious decrease between 1992 and 2002: differencial fertility and international migration

The quality of the recent (2002) census from Romania from the point of view of the relevancy of ethnic data

The 2002 census from Romania – as any census – shall be viewed as a very good approximation, not a precise saizing of the number of population.

Irregularities detected by the media had already pointed out that there were people who were not counted and there were others who were counted twice.

As for the ethnic-nationality data of the census, as a result of comparing the prognoses and the results they have to be taken seriously and considered authentic from the point of view of order of magnitude.

Based on our estimations from our paper published in Korunk, the decrease seemed smaller before the census.

This differences is primarily due to certain methodological differences between the registration of population in 1992 and 2002 of which one had a significant influence on the evolution of the number of Hungarians and the quantification of the decrease.

The quality of the last (2002) census from Romania from the point of view of the relevancy of ethnic data (2)

According to the previous census’ calculation, the population of the country would have been 21 852 600 persons in 2002 and the number of Hungarians would be also higher than 1 434 thousand persons (approx. 1,5 million).

In 2002, according to UN and EUROSTAT methodological recommendations, Romanian citizens living abroad for more than a year were not included into the permanent population, which represented 178,5 persons, while foreign citizens living in Romania for more than a year were included into the permanent population, their number being 24 thousand persons

Accordingly, the proportion of Hungarians has decreased in almost every county. Supposedly already in 1992 many of them (several thousand Hungarians) had not been living in Romania for more than a year at the date of the census, yet they were included into the permanent population. Thus, the actual „true” decrease among Hungarians is significantly smaller than 190 000 as compared to 1992.

Ethnic data on vital statistics in Romania

Romania is between the few states from he World with the registration of vital statistics by ethnicity, for very long period (since 1920): birth, death, marriage

But the vital statistics by ethnicity: not available for the communist period: 1946-1989

While census data were published by ethnic and regional distribution, vital statistics from Romanian Demographic and Statistical Yearbook do not contain such a distribution.

We can order and pay for the ethnic distribution data from the Romanian INS

The quality of ethnic data on fertility after the 1990 period

Incomplete or arbitrary registration of Roma women’s newborns in this region (Central Transylvania) only increases the number of Romanians, in the other two regions it is equally divided between Romanians and Hungarians.

The quality of the registration of the ethic Hungarian women’s newborns is variable according to the percentage of e. Hungarians in that county: in the areas where the ethnic Hungarians are living under 10 percent is very problemantic, and in areas where the ethnic Hungarians live in local majority the underregistration is less than 10 percent.

More children from mixed marriages are registered as Romanians both in birth registers and during censuses, thus assimilation losses are more significant.

Verifying data quality with comparation: different fertility according to different data

sources, the TFR by regions, using two different sources Ethnic Hungarians:

1,31

0,63

0,64

1,15

1,08

1,33

1,38

0,92

0,89

1,21

1,2

1,33

0 0,5 1 1,5

Seckerland (CV, HR, MS)

Northern Transylvania

Southern Transylvania and Banat

Partium (West)

Total Hungarians -Transylv.

Romania

Vital statistics Census cohorts

FERTILITY OF ROMA MINORITY: DIFFICULTIES TO COUNT

Data source difficulties: who is Roma? Are the census data relevant for Roma? Are the vital statistics data relevant for

Roma? Huge differences between vital statistics and

census No posibility to calculate rates

Differences in final fertility by the age group of women, in ethnic perspective, 2002 Census:

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59

Romanians Hungarians Roma Romania /total/

Differences in final fertility by the age group of women, in ethnic perspective, 2002 Census, data:

Mother’s age group Romanians Hungarians Roma/ Gipsy Total

15-19 44,4 42,6 293,7 53,4

20-24 373,9 342,4 1200,4 398,6

25-29 937,0 909,5 2035,7 967,2

30-34 1397,4 1421,3 2817,6 1430,7

35-39 1837,2 1823,5 3707,7 1878,8

40-44 2070,4 2026,0 4034,8 2105,0

45-49 2149,8 2088,8 4091,7 2175,7

50-54 2264,3 2170,4 3979,2 2278,7

55-59 2323,4 2124,9 3873,8 2320,4

Average values 1633,8 1610,0 2454,0 1647,0

Year Total nr. of Proportion (percents)

live births Romanians Hungarians Roma/ gypsy Other

1992 260393 92,5 5,7 1,0 0,9

1993 249994 92,5 5,2 1,4 0,9

1994 246736 92,2 5,3 1,6 0,9

1995 236640 92,0 5,3 1,9 0,9

1996 231348 92,1 5,2 1,9 0,8

1997 236891 92,0 5,1 2,1 0,8

1998 237297 91,8 5,2 2,2 0,8

1999 234600 92,0 5,0 2,2 0,9

2000 234521 91,8 5,0 2,4 0,8

2001 220368 91,5 5,1 2,5 0,9

2002 210529 91,6 5,1 2,5 0,8

The distribution of the live births by ethnic groups, 1992 – 2002: the increasing quality of

registration for Roma

Conclusions

Cannot be used ethnic data of vital statistics in Romania without corrections. We found that in counties where ethnic Hungarians did not represent more

than 20 percent of the population, the number of registered live births of Hungarian women was significantly lower, in average with 30 percent, than the number of the corresponding Hungarian population born that year, according to the 2002 Census. In these counties we corrected the number of Hungarian mothers’ births. Other researchers (Ghetau, 2004) also mention that vital statistics under-registered ethnic Hungarian live births between 1992 – 2002.

Collecting data concerning the Roma population is even more difficult. There is no coherence between census data and vital statistics, that is why it is very difficult to calculate relevant demographic indicators.

In ethnically mixed families there is a tendency to declare the children as belonging to the major ethnic group, i.e. Romanian.

Thank you!