Over 1,200 families have been cleared for adoption a child in Romania, and over 700 children have been adopted this year until November, according to the country's Adoption Office. Over half of the adopted children are Romanian, 25 percent have no ethnicity declared, and 19 percent are of a certain ethnicity.

Only 40 percent of the families chose to adopt a child with various health issues or late development problems, while the rest chose children without any health issues.

The number of adopted children is evenly distributed on age groups – 180 are in the 9-11 years category, 176 in the 3-5 years group, 175 are between 6 and 8, 158 are newborn, and only 95 are over 12. Children over 13 have the hardest time adapting to the new family, according to the Adoption Office. Half of those adopted in 2012 are boys, half girls.

The biggest number of finalized adoptions this year was 86, in Bucharest, followed by Constanta, with 49, and Prahova county, with 44. Most of the families which were cleared for adoption are between 36 to 40 years old.

Romanian adoptions represented a sore point for the country in the early years after the 1989 fall of communism, when many disputed international adoptions took place. The media then commented on these adoptions being performed without complying with the law in many cases, and with many foreign couples ending up paying to get a child.

Things are much stricter nowadays and international adoptions are still possible in Romania, but the ratio is low and process is sluggish for Romanian and foreigners alike.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Romania's adoption office)