Official Name: Romania

Location: (Southeastern) Central Europe

Time Zone: Seven hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time (GMT + 2)

Area: 92,043 sq. miles (238,391 sq. km) - a little larger than the state of Minnesota

Flag of Romania: Three vertical stripes: blue, yellow and red.

Population: 19,334,000 (October 2016)

Main Ethnic Groups:

Romanian 84%, Hungarian 6.1%, Gipsy 3.1%, German 0.2%, Ukrainian 0.2%

Religions:

Christian Orthodox 81%, Roman Catholic 4.3%, Reformed 3%, Greek-Catholic 0.7%, Unitarian 0.3%, Jewish, other.

Official Language: Romanian

Currency: Leu ( plural Lei --- pronunciation "lay" --- abbreviations: Lei or RON )

Climate: Temperate, four distinct seasons, similar to northeastern USA

Capital: Bucharest ( București --- pronunciation: boo koo re sh tea )

Legal system: Based on European models and Constitution of 1991.

Regional Government: Forty-one County Councils (Consiliu Judeţean).

Romania is a member state of the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)