Romania’s top statistician: no miracle fix for demographic crisis

The head of Romania's National Institute of Statistics, Tudorel Andrei, stated that the country will not escape its demographic crisis through a miraculous birth rate recovery, urging public services to adapt to demographic trends instead. Romania recorded the largest increase in median age in the entire European Union between 2005 and 2025, rising by 8.6 years to an average of 44.9 years, according to Eurostat data cited by Andrei. The total fertility rate fell to 1.39 children per woman in 2024, below the 2.1 replacement level, while the average age at first birth exceeded 27 years. Andrei cited demographer Thibault Prébay's work to argue that demographic imbalances accumulate slowly and are predictable, making hopes for significant birth rate recovery "utopian." He called for recalibrating education, health, and pension systems based on the premise of a non-growing population, while emphasizing official statistics as a fundamental public good for democracy.