Overview

Romania is a country slightly smaller than the state of Oregon, measuring 91,699 square miles (237,500 square kilometers). Located in southeastern Europe, it is bounded by the Ukraine and Slovakia to the north, Bulgaria to the south, Serbia to the southwest, Moldavia and the Black Sea to the east, and Hungary to the west. Although the majority of Romanian Americans immigrated from Romania, several thousand families also came from countries bordering or adjacent to Romania, such as Moldova and Albania.

Romania has a population of slightly over 23 million people. Eighty-eight percent are of Romanian ethnic origin while the rest consist of various ethnic minorities, including Hungarians, Germans, Serbians, Bulgarians, Gypsies, and Armenians. Eighty percent of the population nominally belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church, and approximately ten percent are Catholics of the Byzantine Rite. Other religious denominations represented in Romania include Seventh-Day Adventists, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and...