Based on the final settlement-level results of the census carried out in Romania last year, which reflects the conditions on the first of December 2021, the number of Hungarians in the country can be estimated at 1.1 million - the experts of the Nepszamlalas.ro website, which helps the census of Hungarians in Romania, concluded in their analysis.
The sociologists of the portal operated by the Közpolitikai Elemző Központ Association in Cluj-Napoca started from the assumption that within a settlement, people without nationality data are distributed in the same way as those who declare it.
The official results showed 19,053,815 inhabitants in Romania, of whom 1,002,151 declared themselves Hungarian.
The nationality of almost 2.5 million people was not recorded, according to experts, there are another 100,000 Hungarians among them.
They explained: of the approximately 2.5 million persons of unknown nationality, approximately 1.5 million filled out the census form partially, which could have happened against their will, due to an error in the internet interface. The number of those who did not use the option of self-filling on the Internet, or who were not reached by the enumerators, could be increased to another 1 million. The data concerning them were transferred from administrative registers to the census database, regardless of nationality.
According to Nepszamlalas.ro, the number of those who deliberately did not declare their ethnicity was not significant in last year's census either.
The portal also highlighted that
according to the methodology set out in the emergency government decree in 2020, the proportion of ethnic groups is officially calculated only from those who declared their ethnicity.
According to the methodology, the proportion of Romanians is 89.33 percent, Hungarians 6.05, Roma 3.44, Ukrainians 0.28, Germans 0.14. The total share of other ethnic minorities is 0.77 percent.
If the Hungarians represent 6.05 percent of the population even without nationality data, then a Hungarian population of 1 million 140 thousand could be assumed in Romania with a population of 19 million. However, the sociologists of Nepszamlalas.ro also took into account in their calculations that absenteeism from the census was most likely lower among Hungarians, with the total proportion of those with partially completed questionnaires or those entered from administrative records being around 9 percent, compared to the national rate of 13 percent.
This means that the Hungarian community in Romania is about 1.1 million in total, they concluded.
The president of RMDSZ drew attention to the analysis of Nepszamlalas.ro in a statement. Kelemen Hunor thanked the members of the community who agreed to be Hungarian, the thousands of participants of the information campaign and those who, for the first time in the last 30 years, made it possible to use the Hungarian language when filling out the questionnaire by amending the law.
"The results of the census are known, and it is true, we have sad losses as well. Instead of getting discouraged and lamenting, I suggest to ourselves, to all of us, to continue the work we have started for our homeland. A community strong in spirit and heart, unshakable in its national identity, will be able to do this: our community is like that!" - the president of the RMDSZ concluded his statement.
Source and photo: MTI
