Transylvania, i.e. part of the present-day Rumania lying west of the Carpathians, accommodating almost all the ethnic groups of Central and South-eastern Europe (Hungarians, Rumanians, Germans, Gipsies (Romas), Ukrainians, Slovaks, Serbs, Czechs, Bulgarians) in large numbers, is to be considered the most ethnically diverse macroregion of Europe after the recent wars and ethnic cleansing in Croatia and Bosnia­-Herzegovina, by the end of the 1990's. This land with an area of more than one hundred thousand square kms where large masses of Rumani­ans and Hungarians mix together, partly due to its specific spatial structure being in permanent change, has been the subject and place of bitter clashes for the last two hundred years. Probably this is why the number of maps showing the ethno-lingual spatial pattern of Transylvania at a most varied scientific level, with different political motivations, at various scales and using a wide range of methods of representation, of primar­ily Hungarian, Rumanian, German and Austrian origin, has risen considerably (1). The complex of maps presented here is an attempt to depict not only the current ethnic structure of Transylvania but also to outline spatial and temporal dynamics of that pattern through maps and graphs, charts and tables.

On the front page of the present publication the ethnic composition of the resident population living in 26 municipalities, 93 other towns and 5,021 villages of Transylvania and the transformation of the ethno-lingual composition of the most important towns are shown according to the Ruma­nian census data of 1992, by pie-charts and stripe diagrams. On the reverse there are three insert maps with the ethnic distribution of Transylvanian population at about 1495, 1910 and 1992 while two graphs and tables present the changes in the population number of the main ethno-lingual groups between 1495 and 1992. Rumanian, Hungarian and German sources considered relatively reliable for the compilation of the insert maps and table provide a very heterogeneous and uncertain information concerning ethno-lingual origin of population for the period 1495-1850, due to the lack of censuses collecting complete data including the ethnic ones. At the time of the assessment of taxes in the Hungarian Kingdom in 1495 the following data might be instrumental for the evaluation of the absolute or relative ethnic majority of population having lived on the inhabited land of the studied region, in the administrative area of the present-day settlements: direct references to the "ethnic" character of the village (e.g. "villa hungaricalis, olachalis-valachicalis, saxonicalis"); from the reference to the character of taxation to the religious affiliation (e.g. Orthodox - quinquagesima ovium: Rumanian, Catholic - tithe (decima): Hungarian, German); linguistic analysis of the name of the tax-payers or sometimes of the given settlement. Naturally we are aware of the deficiency, uncertainty of the "ethnic" informations of the late Middle Ages, nevertheless it is claimed that the "ethnic" map of 1495 mostly based on the revealed sources - apart from its shortcomings - is a model very close to the presumable "real" situation.

Due to the limited possibilities offered by the large scale on the other insert maps also the areal method of representation was applied to show the absolute or relative ethnic majority of the region for the present-day settlement area, using the data on mother (native) tongue of the 1910 Hungarian census and the ethnicity data of the 1992 Rumanian census.

During the 1495 assessment of taxes of the 2.9 million population of the Hungarian Kingdom 454,000 people might have lived in the Transylva­nian Voivodeship and 830,000 people in the present-day Transylvania (Table 1.) (2). Of them 101,000 lived in the autonomous Saxon Regions and 76,000 in the Szeklerland. Of the population of the contemporary Transylvanian Voivodeship number of Rumanians and Germans (Saxons) might be estimated at 100,000 each (22-22%) (3) while Hungarians and Szeklers have already been reduced to about a quarter of million, i.e. 55%. Among the 5,321 present-day settlements ethnic majorities were distributed as follows: 1,869 Hungarian, 1,785 Rumanian, 359 German (Saxon), 167 Slavic and area of 1,141 present-day settlements was uninhabited. Hungarians constituted the majority of population in almost every towns of Banat, Crişana and Maramureş regions and in half of the major towns with more than 1000 inhabitants (e.g. in Kolozsvár-Cluj, Gyulafehérvár-Alba lulia, Torda-Turda, Dés-Dej). The biggest towns, among them the most populous one of the contemporary Hungary, Brassó-Braşov were still settled predominantly by Saxons. Yet the urban social structure was at that time characterized by a growing ethnic diversity due to migration from the villages to the towns having been ridden by epidemics, and to the moving of Rumanians and Serbs into the southern areas devastated by the plundering Ottoman (Turkish) army (4). A previous ethnic homogeneity of the Hungarian and Saxon villages in the south had ceased for similar reasons.

This time Hungarians still dominated lowlands and hills extending to the foothills in the western areas, in the Szilágyság-Sălaj, Szeklerland and Transylva­nian Basin. An earlier ethnic uniformity of the Transylvanian Basin inhabited by Hungarians, however, was disrupted by the appearance of a large mass of pastoral Rumanians moving from the overpopulated mountains (Map 1.). At the end of the 15th century there was an ethnic expansion of the Rumanians associated not only with the establishment of twin villages (5) but also with the settlement by them of former Hungarian (Catholic) villages pauperised and emptied by epidemics and feudal exploitation after the original population had escaped or mi­grated into urban settlements (6). Parallel to a slow retreat of Hungarians vs Rumanians (and vs Serbs in the Banat) there was a Hungarian expansion in the Saxon mining towns (7) and the Hungarian majority in Kolozsvár-Cluj lost following the Tartar invasion (1242) and Saxon immigration was presumably re-established at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries (8).

A mere 61% of Saxons of Transylvania with a total number at about one hundred thousand lived in areas possessing regional autonomy (King's Land-Königsboden, Barcaság-Burzenland, District of Beszterce-Bistritz) while the rest of them inhabited 150 villages of the Hungarian counties (e.g. Lower and Upper Fehér-Alba, Küküllő-Târnava, Torda-Turda, Kolozs-Cluj, Doboka-Dobâca) and some towns mixed with Hungarians (Kolozsvár-Cluj, Abrud, Zalatna-Zlatna, Aranyosbánya-Baia de Arieş, Torockó-Rimetea, Nagybánya-Baia Mare, Felsőbánya-Baia Sprie etc.). Simultaneously, the King's Land, belonging to the privileged territories directed by Universitas Saxorum, gradually lost its former uniform Saxonian ethnic character, which should be attributed to the depopulation due to Turkish devastations (e.g. 1420, 1438, 1479) and epidemics. An intense immigration of Rumanians to the place of Saxons slaughtered or carried off was especially striking in the environs of Szászváros-Orăştie, Szászsebes-Sebeş, in the foreland of the Szeben-Sibiu Mountains and in the Olt valley (9). As a result of this the ratio of the Orthodox (Rumanian) popula­tion increased to 20% in the King's Land (10) and to 13% in Barcaság-Burzenland-Bârsa region at the end of the 15th century (11).

The Orthodox Rumanians also estimated at one hundred thousand still leading mainly a pastoral way of life at that time, by the end of the 15th century had established the core of their ethnic territory with a south to north migration. This area was stretching from the Banat Mountains through the Bihar-Apuşeni Mountains up to Máramaros-Maramureş (12). There were no permanent settlements in the central, highly elevated, expanding section of the Rumanian ethnic territory (with dwarf villages and scattered farmsteads nowadays) because this population surplus was absorbed by the depopulated Hungarian and Saxon villages in the Transylvanian Basin. As a consequence of their lifestyle permanently settled Rumanians were village dwellers in Transylvania at the end of the 15th century and they did not form ethnic majority in any of the towns.

On the territory of the present-day Transylvania other ethnic groups of worthwhile mentioning were at about 1495: the autochtonous but ethni­cally hardly differentiable Slavic population of the Banat; shepherding Ruthenians in the north (western margin of Máramaros-Maramureş, Kelemen-Călimani and Gyergyó-Gurghiu mountains), Bulgarians in the southern Saxonian areas (Rusciori, Cergău Mic), and Serbs in the Banat and in the environs of Arad. Spontaneous and also organised migration associated with the final occupation of Serbia by Turks in 1459 (e.g. by Branković, Jakšić and Ki­nizsi) an inflow of Serb immigrants occurred not only in South Banat, Lippa-Lipova Hills and the Maros-Mureş valley at Kapronca-Capruţa but also in the environs of Csák-Ciacova, Temesvár-Timişoara, Arad, Világosvár-Şiria, Lippa-Lipova. Nevertheless in these areas a Hungarian majority of population is assumed to have been around 1495 (13).

Within the studied region Hungarian population perished and their majority was disrupted particularly in the flatlands of the Banat and in the surroundings of Arad - especially due to the devastations during acts of war (14) and epidemics between 1514-1552. They had been replaced mainly by Serbs and, to a lesser extent by Rumanians, Gipsies and Turks. On the territory of the Principality of Transylvania, a symbol of the survival of Hungarian statehood the previous ethnic processes continued undisturbed till the end of the 16th century. In the towns of the counties (especially at Kolozsvár-Cluj, Torda-Turda, Gyulafehérvár-Alba lulia, Déva) the Hungarian character of the local society became accentuated by an influx of Hungarians having escaped from the Great Hungarian Plain occupied by the Turks.

The Rumanian population became increasingly settled and converted from shepherding to farming, owing to a relative demographic saturation of their previous ethnic areas, not only filled in gaps of the Hungarian and Saxon ethnic areas but settled in the earlier uninhabited mountain regions (15). At the end of the 16th century historical Transylvania was assumed to have had 670,000 population with a share of ca. 52% Hun­garians, 28% Rumanians and 19% Saxons (Table 1.) (16). During the so called fifteen-year war, between 1599-1604 there were heavy clashes between the Hapsburg (Austrian), Ottoman (Turkish), Transylvanian (Hungarian) and Wallachian (Rumanian) interests of power and Giorgio Basta, a general of the Hapsburg Empire and his ally Wallachian voivode Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul) imposed terror and organised subsequent massacres in Transyl­vania, a state striving at that time for independence. Rumanians and Szeklers, apart from politicai reasons, suffered less for they occupied wooded mountain areas than almost undefended — mainly Hungarian — dwellers of the Transylvanian Basin, environs of Kolozsvár-Cluj and Torda-Turda. As a consequence of massacres, plague and famine, population of large counties with Hungarian majority, (later called) Szolnok-Doboka / Solnoc-Dobâca dropped by 70% between 1553-1603 and that of Kolozs-Cluj by 68% between 1590-1642 (17). Number of Hungarians decreased by 85%, that of the Rumanians by 45% in the County Szolnok-Doboka / Solnoc-Dobâca for the same period. Based on the above data and assuming Szekler losses to have been similar to the Rumanian ones, no more than 330,000 people might have lived on the territory of the blooded and ruined Transylvania in 1604. During a relatively calm period until the mid-16th century a massive migration of Rumanians continued from the internal mountain areas (e.g. Kővárvidék-Chioar Land, Bihar-Apuşeni Mts.) and from the Rumanian principalities (Wallachia, Moldavia), because of an extreme social oppression and permanent uncertain political situation there. These Rumanian masses giving a relief from the lack of labour force were welcome by Hungarian landowners and leaders of the Saxon settlements. By the mid-16th century the proportion of Rumanians probably exceeded one third of the inhabitants (18), perhaps it reached the combined number of Hungarians and Szeklers.

Following an unsuccessful invasion by prince George Rákóczi II to Poland, between 1658-1660, certain regions of Transylvania are devastated by Turkish and Tartar troops and a subsequent plague decimated the population, again predominantly its Hungarian part. Due to the annihila­tion, kidnapping and escape of Hungarians and immigration of Rumanians, on the territory of Kolozs-Cluj, Doboka-Dobâca, Inner and Middle-Szolnok / Solnoc, Kraszna-Crasna counties out of 317 Hungarian villages 177 became of Rumanian majority during the 17th century (19). As a result, in the Transylvanian Basin a Hungarian ethnic territory more or less uniform at the end of the medieval period had disintegrated, while the Saxon ones in the Bistritz district and in King's Land shattered. Because of these processes number of Rumanians in Transylvania must have exceeded Hungarians in the sec­ond half of the 17th century (Figure 1.). Warfare situations between 1599 and 1711 had created a profound, irreversible shift in the ethnic composition of Transylvania for the favour of Rumanians enjoying a permanent supply from over the Carpathians and these changes eventually have proven to be decisive even for the ethnic spatial pattern in the 20th century. According to the conscription of tax-payers of 1720 on the territory of the historical Transylvania 806,000 people might have lived (20), about half of them Rumanians (21).

Following the liberation of the Partium-Crişana region (1692) and of Banat (1718) from Ottoman (Turkish) occupation, large masses of Rumanians of the mountain areas were attracted by the almost depopulated flatlands (22). The Hapsburg administration settled predominantly Catholic Germans in the western, most fertile part of Banat, in the environs of strategically important towns Temesvár-Timişoara and Arad and in the mining areas of (Oravica-Oraviţa, Dognácska-Dognecea, Szászka-Sasca, Boksán-Bocşa, Resica-Resiţa etc.) (23). As a result of this a more or less uniform German ethnic area emerged west of the Lippa / Lipova­ -Temesvár / Timişoara - Deta line, while to the east the Banat became essentially Rumanian. The ethnic composition of this region was made extremely col­ourful as a result of the subsequent settlement of Serbs, Crashovans, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Slovaks and Czechs here during the 18th cen­tury.

In the counties Bihar-Bihor, Szilágy-Sălaj and Szatmár-Satu Mare, apart from the Rumanian ethnic expansion at the expense of Hungarians, important changes in the ethnic pattern were induced by the settlement of Slovaks in the Réz-Şes Mountains and of Germans in the vicinity of Nagykároly-Carei in the 18th century. In the area of the historical Transylvania resettlement meant descendence of Rumanians from the mountain territories and immigration from Wallachia and Moldavia. Trans-Carpathian migration of Rumanians, however did not have an exclusively one-way character (into Transylvania); having depended on the actual socio-economic situation or closely related to security considerations it often was directed from Transylvania to Walla­chia or Moldavia (24). The positive balance of migration toward Transylvania is witnessed by a rate of increase of the Rumanian population well above the average: their number was ca 561,000 in 1720, ca 453,000 in 1733, 538,000 in 1750, 561,000 in 1762, 729,000 in 1794 (Table 1.) (25). Due to the settlement of Rumanians and Gipsies of equally orthodox confession and speaking Rumanian, on the territory of the 11 Saxon "seats" (administrative units, districts), beside 87,000 Lutheran Saxons, 66,000 (43%) orthodox people (Rumanians and Gipsies) lived in 1765; share of them had risen over 53 % by 1900 (26). By this time Saxon seats of Szászváros-Orăştie, Szászsebes-Sebeş, Újegyház-Nocrich and Szerdahely-Miercurea Sibiului devastated in the 16th and 17th centuries had become of Rumanian majority.

As a result of migrations, by the end of the 18th century an ethnic spatial pattern emerged which had not been changed essentially in the rural areas until the mid-20th century. During a hundred years' period following 1770s number of Rumanian population rose at a lower rate, according to their natural increase but in 1832 it surpassed one million in the historical area of Transylvania. This way their share in the overall population was close to 60%, well exceeding that of Hungarians (29%). Several tens of thousands Hungarians and Rumanians fell victim to the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-49 indicated by a drop of 190,000 between 1848 and 1850 (27). According to the Austrian census of 1850 of 1,861,000 inhabitants living on the territory of historical Transylvania 58.3% declared themselves Rumanians, 26.1% - Hungarians and 10.3% - Germans (Table 1., Figure 1.).

Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867) in a period when Transylvania was also formally reannexed to Hungary and the socio-­economic modernization, capitalist transformation took place, even before the improvement of health conditions, the last cholera epidemic occurred in 1873. As a result, total population of Transylvania dropped by 3.2% between the 1869 and 1880 censuses (28) and the population loss was especially heavy in the Partium-Crişana region with high ratio of Rumanian population. At the time of the first Hungarian census in 1880 asking mother tongue, 21% of Hungarians, 17.1% of Germans and 3.4% of Rumanians lived in urban settlements. Also Hungarians formed the majority in towns, 62% (29). At the turn of the century there was a notable emigration toward America, to Rumania and to the central parts of the country, primarily to Budapest, the capital. Concomitantly there was an immigration of Jews from present-day Ukrainian territories (Province Galicia) and Bucovina into Máramaros-Maramureş, to North Transylvania (30) and to the larger towns located along the margin of the Great Hungarian Plain (e.g. Temesvár-Timişoara, Arad, Nagyvárad-Oradea, Szatmárnémeti-Satu Mare). Apart from the favourable trends in natural increase among Hungarians between 1880 and 1910, a volun­tary linguistical assimilation, Magyarization of the Jews (31) highly contributed to the growth of the Hungarian speaking population. An increase in the number of Hungarians might have been observed in urban settlements (e.g. in Temesvár-Timişoara, Arad, Brassó-Braşov, Nagyszeben-Sibiu). On the Rumanian ethnic territory of South Transylvania, settlements (Resica-Reşţa, Boksán-Bocşa, Anina, Vajdahunyad-Hunedoara, Kalán-Călan, Zsil-Jiu valley etc.) mushrooming around the heavy industrial works on the raw material sources (coal and iron ore deposits) absorbed large masses of skilled workforce, mainly Hungarians and Germans. As far as Rumanian population is concerned, their Magyarization was quite negligible. Kovászna-Covasna, Torda-Turda, Nagyszalonta-Salonta, Bánffyhunyad-Huedin, Marosvásárhely-Târgu Mureş were towns where the proportion of Hungarians had dropped as a result of Rumanian immigration. Rumanian expansion was even stronger in Nagyszeben-Sibiu, Segesvár-Sighişoara, Medgyes-Mediaş at the expense of Saxons.

Of the nearly 5.3 million population of present-day Transylvania, 54% declared Rumanian, 32% Hungarian and 11 % German to be their mother tongue at the time of the 1910 Hungarian census (Table 2.). In comparison with the situation at the end of the 18th century the ethnic spatial pattern had not changed essentially, only the partial Magyarization of Greek Catholics, Jews and Roman Catholic Germans made the Hungarian ethnic area of 20 to 30 km width along the present Hungarian-Rumanian state border (North-Bihar / Bihor - Szatmár / Satu Mare - Ugocsa / Ugocea) more homogeneous, while in the Banat and in the southern part of Transylvania Hungarian language isles grew in number (Map 2.). Ethnic territory of Germans (Saxons, Swabians) was least divided by Rumanian villages in the environs of Beszterce-Bistriţa, in remote parts of the Hortobágy-Hârtibaciu Hills and in the Banat, between Temesvár-Timişoara and Nagyszentmiklós-Sânnicolau Mare. In the Banat an extremely complex ethnic spatial pattern (Rumanians, Germans, Hungarians, Serbs, Gipsies, Czechs, Bul­garians, Crashovans, Slovaks) created by colonisations during the 18th century survived. This relative ethnic stability characterized the ethnic territory of Slovaks in the Réz-Şes Mts. and that of Ruthenians in the Máramaros-Maramureş. Nevertheless, absolute or relative majority in 30 of the then 41 urban settlements of the present-day Transylvania declared themselves Hungarian, of the state-forming ethnic group. There was a Rumanian majority in 6 smaller towns (Karánsebes-Canansebeş, Hátszeg-Haţeg, Szászváros-Orăştie, Szászsebes-Sebeş, Abrud, Vízakna-Ocna Sibiului), while Germans dominated Nagyszeben-Sibiu, Medgyes-Mediaş, Segesvár-Sighişoara, Szászrégen-Reghin and Beszterce-Bistriţa. Most of those with Hungarian lingual affiliation (23 to 28,000) lived in Nagyvárad-Oradea, Kolozsvár-Cluj, Arad, Szatmárnémeti-Satu Mare, Temesvár-Timişoara and Marosvásárhely-Târgu Mureş in 1910. The largest Rumanian communities were Brassó-Braşov, Arad and Nagyszeben-Sibiu (9 to 12,000), the German ones (11 to 32,000) being Temesvár-Timişoara, Nagyszeben-Sibiu and Brassó-Braşov. Among the 5,321 present-day settlements ethnic majorities were distributed as follows: 3,921 Rumanian, 1,026 Hungarian, 279 German, 81 Slavic, one Gipsy (Prislop at Răşinari in Szeben-Sibiu county); the areas of 13 present settlements were uninhabited.

At the end of the World War I territories of Eastern Hungary were occupied by the Royal Rumanian troops; this area of ca 103,000 km2 (Transylvania in a broader sense) was annexed to Rumania at the Peace Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920) by the victorious Entente Powers. This way - according to the 1910 census data - nearly 2.5 million non-Rumanians (of them 1.7 million Hungarians), making up 46% of the total population of Transylvania, were to become citizens of Rumania suddenly turning into a multi-ethnic state. According to the figures of the Na­tional Office for Refugees in Budapest, following the Hungarian-Rumanian shift of power, between 1918 and 1924, 107,035 Hungarians fled Rumania to the new state territory of Hungary (32). The number of Hungarians recorded in Rumanian statistics was further decreased by the classification of - the former mostly Hungarian speaker - Jews into a separate ethnic category, registration of already Magyarized Greek Catho­lics and Orthodox people as Rumanians, and of Roman Catholic Swabians of German origin in the Satu Mare-Szatmár Region as Germans (Table 2., Figure 2.) (33). The decrease of the number and share of Hungarians between 1910 and 1930 for the above reasons was striking in the urban settlements of the border region of Crişana-Maramureş (e.g. Arad, Oradea-Nagyvárad, Carei-Nagykároly, Satu Mare-Szatmárnémeti, Sighetu Marmaţiei.-Máramarossziget), while there was an additional massive resettlement of Rumanians into Cluj-Kolozsvár, Turda-Torda, Târgu Mureş-Marosvásárheéy, Zalău-Zilah, Baia Mare-Nagybánya, Deva, Petroşani-Petrozsény and Dej-Dés. As a consequence, a mere 37.9% of the urban popula­tion of Transylvania were registered Hungarians in 1930. After the towns received 185,000 Rumanians between 1910 and 1930 the latter had reach ed 35% of the total urban population (29). Outside of the towns Rumanization took place in the framework of the land reform by establish­ing Rumanian colonies along the Hungarian-Rumanian border, on the Hungarian ethnic territory of Satu Mare-Szatmár and Bihor-Bihar counties (34). Beside economic reasons a policy of ethnic discrimination led to a massive emigration of ethnic minorities; e.g. the distribution of emigrants from Ru­mania in 1927 was as follows: 30% Germans, 28% Jews, 12% Hungarians and 5% Rumanians (35).

The number of Germans between the two world wars mainly stagnated, due to their low vitality and natural increase (36) and emigration. There was an abrupt increase of Germans in the Satu Mare-Szatmár region; they declared themselves Hungarians previously. Of the urban settlements, an absolute majority of Germans was retained only at Reşiţa-Resica (55.4% in 1930) and a relative one at Sibiu-Nagyszeben, Mediaş-Medgyes and Sighişoara-Segesvár. Due to an expan­sion of Rumanians and Gipsies of a much higher vitality, at that time only two of the Saxon districts of Transylvania (Mediaş-Medgyes, Dumbrăveni-Erzsébetváros) had a German majority of population. 68% of Transylvanian Jewry having undergone rapid Magyarization previously (37) and numbering 179,000 in 1930, lived in the north mainly, in counties Maramureş (34,000), Satu Mare-Szatmár (24,000), Bihor-Bihar (22,000), Cluj-Kolozs (17,000), Sălaj-Szilágy (13 ,000) and Someş-Szamos (10,000).

During World War II ministers of foreign affairs of Germany and Italy decided to calm down war-like tensions between their allies, Hungary and Rumania, dividing the territory of Transylvania between these countries (Second Vienna Award, 30 August 1940). The northern half (43,104 km ,with a 53.6% ethnic Hungarian population (1941 Hungarian census data) (38) was reannexed to Hungary, while the southern part with a 68.5% population of Rumanian ethnic origin (1941 Rumanian census data) remained in Rumania. In this extremely tense situation, for different reasons — sense of fear, compelling to emigrate, expelling — 219,927 Rumanians (39) left the northern part under Hungarian administration be­tween 1940-1943 and 190,132 Hungarians fled Southern Transylvania between 1938-1944 (40). As a result of a massive and enforced Hungar­ian-Rumanian population shift (1940-41) an accelerated Rumanization and the reduction of the Hungarian population of towns in the southern part was particularly striking at Turda-Torda (-30%), Braşov-Brassó (-24%), Arad, Déva, Petroşani-Petrozsény (-20%), Timişoara-Temesvár and Aiud-Nagyenyed (-17%) between 1930 and 1941. At the same time, in the Hungarian section of Transylvania, due to enforced Rumanian-Hungarian migrations, self-declaration of the majority of Jews and of Satu Mare-Szatmár Swabians as of Hungarian mother tongue, in urban settlements ethnic proportions similar to those of the 1910 census had been re-established (80-90% Hungarians). After fleeing of the Rumanian civil servants and generally those having settled in Transylvania following 1918 a maximum drop of number in Rumanian population was observed in Kolozsvár-Cluj (-25,000), Nagyvárad-Oradea (-16,000), Szatmárnémeti-Satu Mare (-12,000), Marosvásárhely-Târgu Mureş (-8,000) and Nagykároly-Carei (-4,000). Because of the pressure on the "hostile" minorities thousands of Rumanians fled from the Ru­manian colonies established in the interwar period in NW-Transylvania (Szatmár - Satu Mare, Bihar-Bihor) and many thousands of Hungarians escaped from the villages of the Mureş-Maros and Târnava-Küküllő regions (e.g. Simeria-Piski, Vinţu de Jos-Alvinc, Teiuş-Tövis, Ocna Mureş-Marosújvár, Unirea-Felvinc, Câmpia Turzii-Aranyosgyéres, lernut-Radnót, Bahnea-Bonyha) in the Rumanian South.

During World War II a massive extermination or deportation of Jews — in contrast to Transnistria, Bessarabia and Moldavia — did not take place in South Transylvania. In North Transylvania, however, the overwhelming part of 151,000 Jews of predominantly Hungarian native tongue and awareness were deported in May and June 1944 (41). This way Hungarian population had been reduced heavily in Nagyvárad-Oradea (-20,000), Kolozsvár-Cluj (­16,000), Szatmárnémeti-Satu Mare (-12,000) and Marosvásárhely-Târgu Mureş (-5,000).

Following Rumania's siding with the Allied Powers toward the conclusion of World War II (23 August 1944) North Transylvania became unde­fendable from where large masses of Hungarians began to escape, especially those having settled there after 1940 and politically compromit­ted; also Saxons from the Beszterce-Bistriţa region and Swabians from Szatmár-Satu Mare were evacuated. During the world war, shifts of power were accompa­nied by missions of bloody vengeance committed both by Hungarians and Rumanians, these had but local effects on the demographic-ethnic pattern of population.

After North Transylvania was recovered by Rumania no official measures were taken to expatriate Germans, however, in order to achieve social and national aims of the Rumanian land reform adopted in 1945, the majority of Germans remaining in the country and deprived of landed prop­erty — mainly those in the Banat — were collected in labour camps and at least 70,000 of them deported to the Soviet Union to perform forced labour (42). These migrations caused number of Saxons to drop by 37% and that of Swabians by 39%.

About one third of Jews of North Transylvania survived World War II, similar to the Jewry of Moldavia and Bessarabia (43). Since then number of Transylvanian Jews decreased to 2,687 (1992 census data) due to repatriation to the State of Israel established in 1948 (Table 2.). One third of Slovaks left their homeland (Nădlac, Şes Mts) to find place of living in settlements of present South Slovakia from where Hungarians were expelled.

As a result of deportation of Jews and of the flight in autumn 1944 Hungarian speakers in North Transylvania diminished by ca 238,000 between 1941 and 1948 (44). A massive population shift (Hungarians, Jews, Germans and Rumanians), by the time of the 1948 census Rumanians achieved ethnic majority in the Transylvanian urban settlements (50.2%) while the proportion of Hungarians was reduced to 39% and that of Germans to 7.2% (45).

Following the communist take-over, in the 1950's, during the "heroic age" of the Rumanian socialist industrialization, population concentration, increasing of industrial jobs and urban population was a primary target. Between 1948 and 1956 urban population of Transylvania increased by over one million In addition to fulfilling the socio-political aims of the early East European socialist urbanisation Rumanian ethno-political tar­gets, namely turning cities and towns with Hungarian character into those of Rumanian ethnic majority in the region, played a very important role, too.

The ethnic structure of urban settlements (with 49.9% of non-Rumanian native speakers) would have been undoubtedly modified even without political interference, because the source of their population growth, the population of Transylvanian villages, had been two-thirds Rumanian for more than two centuries. It was only a matter of time, where, when and to what extent the Rumanian majority of the urban reservoir would pre­vail. Anyway it is a fact, that of the 2.1 million population that lived in the present-day towns the 1956 census found 58.1% Rumanians, 30.3% Hungarians, 74% Germans (46). By this time on the present-day territory of Cluj-Kolozsvár, the Hungarian cultural centre of the region, the number of Rumanian population equalled to that of Hungarians (47.9%), while Baia Mare-Nagybánya lost its Hungarian majority and became Rumanian (55.9%) It should be noted that in the period between the censuses of 1948 and 1956 there was an increase in number and share of Germans in urban population for those having returned from labour camps, finding themselves excluded from the land reform and deprived of landed property, had to seek for jobs in cities, towns, and industrial centres. As a result, half of the Transylvanian Germans had become urban dwellers (47).

According to the 1956 census data, on the present-day territory of Transylvanian counties 6,218,427 people lived; of them 65% (4.04 million) declaring themselves Rumanians, 251 % (1.56 million) Hungarians, 59% (368,000) Germans, 1.3% (78,000) Gipsies (Table 2.). Because of the massive migrations and losses during the war, the rural ethnic territory of Germans (whose number diminished by 200,000 compared to 1941) vanished completely. An ethnic vacuum in the fertile region of the Banat and from farming aspect a less valuable area in the Saxon villages emerging in 1944-45 had almost been filled completely by Rumanians until 1956. In the Bârsa Land-Barcaság there had been a massive settlement of Rumanians, while 95% of Saxons evacuated the Bistriţa region in 1944, so no settlements with absolute majority of Germans were found in these areas. In the latter, in the environs of Reghin-Szászrégen and Batoş, Hungarians had moved into vacant villages. People of Swabian origin but having undergone Magyarization already in the 19th century, living in the Satu Mare-Szatmár region — in contrast to the period between 1920 and 1940 — overwhelmingly declared themselves Hungarian regarding both nationality and native tongue. At the same time, Rumanian population had returned to small colonies founded along the borderline, on the Satu Mare / Szatmár - Bihor / Bihar Hungarian ethnic territory between 1920 and 1940, and new villages were estab­lished, too.

In spite of 7.8‰ natural increase in annual average, population of the Transylvanian counties only grew by ca 1.5 million, i.e. 24.2% in the period between the 1956 and 1992 censuses (48). Owing to the high discrepancies among different ethnic groups regarding their natural and mechanical demographic trends, because of changes in ethnic identity (assimilation-dissimilation), the number of Gipsies increased by 159%, of Ukrainians-Ruthenians - by 59.7%, of Rumanians - 40.7%, of Hungarians - 2.9%, while there was a decrease in the number of Jews by 93.9%, of Germans - by 704%, of Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats-Crashovans - by 16-23%, during the studied 36 years (Table 2.). An annual average of natural increase by ethnic groups can only be estimated for this period (Rumanians: 8.6‰, Hungarians 6.6‰, Germans 3.3‰) (49). Based on these figures number of Rumanians should have been 5.3 million (instead of the recorded 5,684,000), of Hungarians 1.928 million (1.6 mil­lion), of Germans 412,000 (109,000) in 1956. Large shifts in proportions were due to outmigrations from and immigrations in Transylvania affect­ing more than one million people, and a migration balance negative for ethnic minorities and positive for Rumanians (50). According to the statistics concerning place of birth and demographic trends, competent estimates on the number of Rumanians resettled from the regions over the Carpathians put their number about 800,000, while there was a quarter of million people going to Wallachia and Moldavia between 1945 and 1992 (51). Of the latter the number of Hungarians might have been up to 60,000. An overwhelming part of immigrants from Moldavia and Walla­chia were directed to South Transylvania, into the counties of the Braşov-Arad-Reşiţa heavy industrial triangle, where an increased demand on workforce could not be satisfied owing to a traditionally low natural increase (subsequently turning into decrease) and, later, because of a grow­ing rate of emigration of Germans. Further on, masses coming from Moldavia, Wallachia were used to accelerate Rumanization of certain mu­nicipalities in North Transylvania (Cluj-Napoca-Kolozsvár, Oradea-Nagyvárad).

Beside the massive influx of Rumanians, the rapid process of the decline in the number of national minorities in Transylvania was the result of their increasing emigration. While there was an annual outmigration of 2,000-3,000 Germans and maximum 1,000 Hungarians in the framework of family unification between 1956 and 1975, 389,000 people (215,000 Germans, 64,000 Hungarians, 6,000 Jews and 5,000 others) left Transyl­vania between 1975 and the 1992 census (52). The annual number of German emigrants — according to the agreement concluded in 1978 between German chancellor H. Schmidt and Rumanian president N. Ceauşescu — had been stabilised in 10 to 14,000 annually (53). In the same period number of Hungarians leaving the region rose from 1058 in 1979 to 4144 in 1986 and 11,728 in 1989, in close relationship with the grad­ual deterioration of the economic and political situation. As a result of the exodus having started with the collapse of the Ceauşescu regime 60,072 Germans, 23,888 Rumanians and 11,040 Hungarians abandoned Rumania only in 1990. Out of the 96,929 persons that had left the country 83,512 (862%) said farewell to Transylvania. The pull factors were higher living standards abroad and a hope for a better future of children, while the push factors were the shattered confidence in Rumania and an open burst of nationalism (54). This wave of emigration has calmed down recently and stabilized at a national rate of 20,000 annually (55).

Massive migrations of different directions taking place over the past four decades, especially the internal shifts in the framework of socialist urbanization, from rural to urban settlements, resulted in population growth of Transylvanian cities and towns from 2.1 to 4.4 million, while population of villages dropped from 4.1 to 3.3 million between 1956 and 1992. In rural areas, due to the exodus of Germans, all of the three present-day dominant ethnic groups (Rumanians, Hungarians, Gipsies) were able to increase their share (56), but in the cores of the settlement system, in centres of governmental power as focuses of Rumanization, the number and proportion of Rumanians had risen considerably (1956: 1.2 million, i.e. 58.1%; 1992 3.3 million, 75.6% in urban settlements). In this period eight towns of Hungarian population majority and one of German majority (Jimbolia-Zsombolya in 1990) turned into settlements with Rumanian dominance. As a result of an accelerated population growth dictated by party resolutions and implemented through the resettlement from Rumanian villages of Transylvania and of Transcarpathian regions, the following towns of formerly Hungarian dominance turned into those with Rumanian population majority (over 50%): Cluj-Kolozsvár in 1957, Zalău-Zilah in 1959, Bălan-Balánbánya and Reghin-Szászrégen in 1969, Oradea-Nagyvárad in 1971, Huedin-Bánffyhunyad in 1972, Satu Mare-Szatmárnémeti in 1973, Aleşd-Élesd in 1978. A relatively rapid and profound change of social pattern in urban settlements of Transylvania, when groups of different social structure and behaviour, ethnic and religious affiliation were mixed and, later, a total ruralization of towns, increased the danger of emerging ethnic conflicts in the largest of them. Similar transformation processes took place at the expense of ethnic minorities in the agglomerating and rapidly growing suburbs of big cities (e.g. Arad, Timişoara-Temesvár, Cluj-Napoca-Kolozsvár, Târgu Mureş-Marosvásárhely, Braşov-Brassó). Due to the resettlement of Rumanians, in the villages of peripheral transport position, populated mainly by ethnic minorities, parallel with outmigration, ageing, a permanent decline of natural increase and population, local society might retain, even increase its original ethnic character. Such Hungarian villages exist in most parts of Szeklerland, Târnava-Küküllő Hills, Câmpia Transilvaniei-Mezőség, Sălaj-Szilágyság and in more remote parts along the Hungarian-Rumanian borderland. At the same time, independent of natural and mechanical demographic fac­tors, dissimilation of Swablans of Satu Mare-Szatmár, previously almost completely Magyarized and part of the Hungarian speaking Gipsies, several settlements had lost its former statistical majority. An ethnic group with the highest vitality in Transylvania, Gipsies (Romas) have been able to highly increase proportion in their traditional ethnic territory: in Bihor-Bihar, Satu Mare-Szatmár, Sălaj-Szilágy, Cluj-Kolozs, Mureş-Maros, Sibiu-Szeben and Braşov-Brassó counties and in villages of the Olt-Mureş interfluve abandoned by Saxons. This resulted from a broadening demographic basis, a strengthened awareness, a gradual dissimilation from Rumanians and Hungarians. In certain regions of South Transdanubia (in Hungary), however, a reverse ethnic process took place among the population of Gipsy native tongue: their massive return to the Rumanians (57).

By the census carried out on 7 January 1992 population of the Transylvanian counties was found 7,723,313 (by 310,000 less than in the middle of 1989), while on the territory of the Banat, Crişana, Maramureş, and the historical part of Transylvania 7,759,466 people lived. Of them 5.7 million (73.6%) declared themselves Rumanians, 1.6 million (20.7%) Hungarians, 204,000 (2.6%) Gipsies (Romas), and 109,000 (1.4%) Ger­mans. There were 50,000 Ukrainians, 28,000 Serbs, 19,000 Slovaks, 8,000 Bulgarians, 7,000 Croats, and 5,000 Czech (Table 2.) (58). As a consequence of the above outlined migrations and demographic processes taking place during the 20th century the ethnic face of Transylvania became sim­pler and less diverse at expense of the national minorities and in favour of Rumanians and, at the same time, with the ethnic expansion of Gipsies, more colourful (Map 3.).

Rumanians represent an absolute majority in 14 of the 16 counties of Transylvania, sharing over 90% in the population of Hunedoara, Bistriţa-­Nasăud and Alba, between 80 and 90% in Sibiu, Braşov, Caraş-Severin, Timiş, Arad and Maramureş counties. Out of the 26 municipalities of the region 22 had Rumanian population majority, of other 92 towns 77, and of the 5,203 villages 4,222 were of Rumanian dominance. Nearly homogeneous rural areas of Rumanian population are found in South Maramureş, in the historical districts of Nasăud and Chioar, on the Someş Upland and in the South Carpathians (front page map). As a result of an enforced urban growth targeted at changing the ethnic pattern, 75.6% of the dwellers in cities and towns of Transylvania were already Rumanians. An absolute majority of Rumanians, who in the previous centuries belonged to rural population almost exclusively, had become urban dwellers (58.9%). 26.9% of them lived in settlements with population number over 100,000, 20.2% inhabited towns with population between 20,000-100,000. The largest towns of Transylvania (Timişoara-Temesvár, Cluj-Napoca / Kolozsvár, Braşov-Brassó) which 40­-60 years before had a Hungarian-German majority of population, became overwhelmingly Rumanian (75-90%). Also above the average, 20.2% of Rumanians lived in hamlets and small villages below 1,000 population, mainly in mountain and hill regions. The Rumanians represented 81% in the total population of Transylvanian dwarf villages and farmsteads of mountains (first of all in Bihar-Apuşeni Mts.) with less than 500 inhabitants due to specific features of the Rumanian ethnic territory related to natural environment.

Hungarians amounted to 1,604,000 as to ethnicity and to 1,620,000 regarding mother tongue and formed population majority in counties Har­ghita-Hargita and Covasna-Kovászna and in four municipalities (Târgu Mureş-Marosvásárhely, Miercurea Ciuc-Csíkszereda, Odorheiu Secuiesc-Székelyudvarhely, Sfântu Gheorghe-Sepsiszentgyörgy), in 14 other Transylvanian towns (of them 9 in Szeklerland) and in 795 villages in 1992 (front page map). Of them 56% were urban dwellers, while those living in settlements with population number over 100,000 represented 20.4%. Their proportion in middle-size towns with 20,000 -100,000 inhabitants (20.6%), was similar to that of Rumanians and Hungarians had a share above the average in middle-size and large villages with 1,000-5,000 people. 44% of Hungarians lived in rural areas inhabiting mainly the Szeklerland, Bihor-Bihar and Sălaj-Szilágy; 56.9% of Transylvanian Hungarians lived in settlements where they formed an absolute majority, 28% of Hungarians were resident in settlements where their ratio was above 90%, while 9.2% of them in diasporas doomed to vanish and be assimilated (proportion of Hungarians below 10%). The most populous Hungarian communities — excluding Târgu Mureş-Marosvásárhely — are to be found in towns (Cluj-Napoca / Kolozsvár, Oradea-Nagyvárad, Satu Mare-Szatmárnémeti), where the ratio of Hungarians has been reduced to a 23-41% minority for the past 30­-40 years. 45.2% of Hungarians lived in the Szeklerland, 31.2% in the Crişana-Partium region, 4.4% in the Banat and 19.2% in other counties of the his­toric Transylvania. They have been able to maintain a relative homogeneity of their ethnic territories only in the Szeklerland and North Bihor-Bihar. In Satu Mare-Szatmár and Sălaj-Szilágy counties Hungarians live mixed with Rumanians, Germans, Gipsies, and in other regions they form ethnic patches, isles of various size and diasporas.

During the 1992 census 203,000 people of Transylvania declared themselves of Gipsy (Roma) ethnicity and 85,000 - of native Gipsy speakers. This difference is to be attributed to the fact that the majority of Gipsies in Rumania consider Rumanian (54.3%) or Hungarian (4.7%) their mother tongue and only 40.9% stick to Romany (Gipsy) language. Assuming that natural increase of the Roma population has been maintained at a similar level in Hungary and in Transylvania since the 1893 census of Gipsies, their number could be estimated around 1,115,000, i.e. 14.4% of the total population of Transylvania in 1992 (59). The settlement area of Gipsies has not changed much since the 18th century and remained mixed with that of Rumanians, Hungarians and Germans. Consequently, 42.2% of them lived in the internal parts of Transylvania (Mureş, Sibiu, Cluj, Braşov counties), and 34.1 % inhabited the western counties (Timiş, Arad, Bihor, Sălaj, Satu Mare) (front page map) (60). At the same time they do not tend to settle in ethnically homogeneous, mainly mountain areas of Rumanians or Szeklers, because of the meagre living conditions and a relatively lower level of tolerance of local population towards them. 34% of Gipsies are urban dwellers and their most populous communities are to be found in centres of their settlement areas: Târgu Mureş-Marosvásárhely (2,597), Cluj-Napoca / Kolozsvár (3,201), Târnaveni-Dicsőszentmárton (2,368), Turda-Torda (2,289), Mediaş-Medgyes (2,196) in the Transylvanian Basin, Timişoara-Temesvár (2,668), Arad (2,138), Oradea-Nagyvárad (2,137), Baia Mare-Nagybánya (1,969) along the western margin. They usually consider the prevailing language of the environment (Rumanian or Hungarian) to be their mother tongue but in the Transylvanian Basin, especially north of Târnava rivers they increasingly declared Gipsy as native tongue. According to the 1992 census they formed majority in 24 settlements mainly abandoned by Saxons.

The former third dominant ethnic group of historic Transylvania, Germans had shrunk to 109,000 persons and 91,000 declared German their native tongue. As a result of the emigration of the younger generations one third of the Germans are elderly people; 41.5% of them (Saxons) live in historic Transylvania, 44.1% (Swabians) in the Banat and Arad county, 195% in the Crişana-Partium region and in Maramureş (front page map). In the latter there is a community of ca 10,000 Swabians Magyarized for the past two hundred years, of Hungarian native tongue who suddenly declared themselves Germans in the 1992 census, obviously for political-economic reasons. Swabians of Satu Mare-Szatmár inhabit 7 of the 15 settlements with absolute or relative German majority. In the Banat and the land of Saxons (King's Land-Königsboden) only 4 - 4 dwarf villages remained of relative German majority. Due to the flight of the past years only one third of Germans live in rural areas. Urban communities secure the maintenance of German population (making up 2-5% of their inhabitants) Timişoara-Temesvár (13,206), Sibiu-Nagyszeben (5,605), Reşiţa-Resica (5,322) and Arad (4,142).

73% of the Ukrainian-Ruthenian minority of 50,000 people live along the Ukrainian border, in Maramureş, while 21 % of them are spread in the Banat, forming a majority in 11 villages of the former and in 10 villages of the later. Most of them live in Poienile de Sub Munte (10,240), Rus­cova (4,913), Repedea (4,762), Rona de Sus (4,013) and Remeţi (2,384) (front page map).

28,000 Serbs, who (similar to Rumanians) are of Orthodox confession, with a steady population loss for the last one hundred years mainly due to emigration, live almost exclusively in the Banat. Number of villages of Serb population majority to be found chiefly close to the border with Yugoslavia and in environs of Recaş were reduced from 20 to 11 between 1956-1992. The most populous of them are: Sviniţa, Sânmartinu Sârbesc, Belobreşca, Radâmna, Socol, Câmpia. The largest Serb communities, however, are dwellers of Timişoara (7,748) and Moldova Nouă (1,782) (front page map).

48% of Slovaks of predominantly Roman Catholic confession and numbering 19,000, populate villages in the Şes Mts. 23% of them live in the only town of Rumania with a majority of Lutheran Slovaks, Nădlac (4,404 persons), which is a settlement with a busy international border cross­ing (front page map). Most populous communities of Slovaks in the Şes Mts. (with 500-800 people) are Făgetu, Budoi, Şinteu, Valea Târnei.

Descendants of Catholic Bulgarians having fled to the Banat in 1738-39 numbering hardly 8,000 persons form a majority only at Dudeştii Vechi (3,565) and Breştea (544), while in their former centre, Vinga they have a 17% minority (690 persons) (front page map).

Most of the Croatian-Crashovan communities of Roman Catholic confession (6,753 people) inhabit the Banat, namely seven villages in the southern vicinity of Reşiţa: e.g. Caraşova (2,254), Clocotici (938), Lupac (864), Rafnic (621), Nermed (607) (front page map).

90% of Czechs, number of whose has halved for the past 50 years (5,497 in 1992), live in the Banat. Some of the villages in Almăj and Locva Mts still are of Czech ethnic majority (Gârnic, Sfânta Elena, Bigăr, Ravensca, Eibenthal, Baia Nouă, Şumiţa) (front page map).

For the five years since the 1992 census, population number of Transylvania, mainly because of the natural decrease was reduced to 7.6 million by 1 January, 1997 (61). Based on demographic trends and ethnic data of the 1992 census, 74.5% of the population of Transylvania were Ru­manians (5,670,000), 20.2% of them Hungarians (1,540,000), and 27% Gipsies (208,000). If our calculations are based on an estimated num­ber of Gipsies for 1992 (1,150,000), ethnic composition of Transylvania in the beginning of 1997 presumably was as follows: 4.8 million Rumanians (63%), 1,470,000 Hungarians (19.3%), 1,150,000 Gipsies (15.1 %), 73,000 Germans (0.9%) and 120,000 others (1.7%).