POPULATION 22,317,730
ORTHODOX CHURCH 86.7 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 4.7 percent
REFORMED 3.2 percent
PENTECOSTAL 1.5 percent
GREEK CATHOLIC 0.9 percent
BAPTIST 0.6 percent
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST 0.4 percent
UNITARIAN 0.3 percent
MUSLIM 0.3 percent
CHRISTIAN OF OLD RITE 0.2 percent
CHRISTIAN ACCORDING TO THE GOSPELS 0.2 percent
OTHER 1.0 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Romania is situated on the Balkan Peninsula. The country is bounded by Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and the Black Sea. Christianity was established in the present Romanian territory from the third century C.E.

The church is considered by some to have been the most important cultural institution and a key factor in preserving the national identity even when different parts of Romanian lands were subsequently under Ottoman, Polish, Habsburg, and Russian suzerainty. In Transylvania, Habsburg domination replaced Ottoman suzerainty at the end of the seventeenth century, and part of the Romanian population accepted unification with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Walachia united...