Romania continues to see high rates of emigration, with the data for 2017 showing that one person left the country every three minutes.

A total of 219,327 Romanians emigrated in 2017, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS), cited by local Edupedu.ro. This translates into around 640 people per day, or 24 people every hour.

Most of those who decided to emigrate last year, namely over 17%, were from the 25-29 years age group, followed by those in the 20-24 years age group, with a share of 14.5%.

A report of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) said that almost 20% of the Romanians aged 20 to 64 years old, the main target of the labor market, were residing in another EU country in 2017. The percentage is the highest among all 28 EU member states. Romania is followed by Lithuania, Croatia, Portugal, Latvia and Bulgaria, with shares ranging between 10% and 15%.

World Bank economist looks into migration negative and positive effects on Romania

Study: 21% of urban Romanians plan to emigrate in the next two years

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com