Persons over 65 accounted for 19.3 of resident population in Romania, on January 1

Persons aged 65 and over represented 19.3% of the country's resident population, on January 1, 2021, respectively 3,707,080 citizens out of a total of 19,186,201, the country's resident population, according to a press release of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) published on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons.Among the existing elderly, men accounted for 1.496 million (15.9% of the total number of men resident in Romania of 9.392 million people), and women for 2.21 million (22.6% of the total number of women resident in Romania of 9.794 million people).By region, the largest number of elderly people, relative to the total resident population were recorded in South-Western Oltenia, Southern Muntenia and South-Eastern region (over 20% of the total), followed by the Central and Western regions (19.0% each), North-Eastern (18.6%) and North Western (18.1%), the "youngest" population having been recorded in the Bucharest-Ilfov region (16.8%).The middle age and the average age, two indicators that are relevant to show the degree of aging of the population of a country place Romania below the level of the European Union, although in the past 18 years they have been constantly growing.The demographic aging index of the resident population on January 1, 2021 was 123.9 elderly people per 100 young people.The structure of households made according to the occupational status of the head of the household shows that the most numerous categories are those of employees (44.8) and pensioners (41.1%).According to the INS, the structure according to the age of the head of the household places on the second place the households led by those with a head of household aged 65 and over (32.8%), in the first place being placed those aged 25-49 (38.3%).In 2020, out of the total of 5.128 million pensioners, 4.021 million were social security pensioners, who retired when they reached the age limit.