Southeast Europe

political and socio-economic condition characteristic to the monarchy was established, a
new census operation was necessary. The next one was held in 1857 and offered
information organised by confessional criteria (the census in 1857, 1996:15). In 1869
only religion was mentioned, and the 1880 census did not include questions about
nationality for political reasons (the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary Franz
Joseph ordered it); however it considered religion. The next censuses in 1890, 1900, and
1910 provided information about both confessional and language structures of the
population. When Transylvania and Romania united (1918), the authorities organised
data collection in the Hungarian territory occupied by the Romanian army. This census
contained information about religion and nationality. The census conducted in 1930
gave answers about the population structure concerning nationality, religion, and
language. The next two censuses made in 1941 and 1948 followed the same guidelines,
but unfortunately, when the data from 1948 was processed, they considered only the
mother tongue.
Nationality 1850 1857 1869 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1941 1948
Romanians 59.4 60.7 59 57 56 55.1 53.8 57.3 58.3 55.9 65.1
Hungarians 26.1 28.1 24.9 25.9 27.1 29.5 31.5 25.5 24.4 29.4 25.7
*These figures describe the former Transylvanian territory, the one before 1918 (the
year when Transylvania was attached to Romania), (Varga, 1998)
As the above table shows, the proportion of Hungarian native speakers increased from
1880 to 1910. A. Varga (Varga, 1998) explains this significant change in the ethnic
spectrum of Transylvania by three factors: 1. The natural population growth of
Hungarians was higher than that of non-Hungarian nationalities (the demographic
catastrophe of the 1870s had a great effect on the Romanian population determining its
decrease by 2% in one decade). 2. The proportion of Hungarian emigrants was lower
than that of non-Hungarian emigrants. 3. Some non-Hungarians and most immigrants
were assimilated into the Hungarian community (the assimilation process influenced the
population growth and changed the ethnic proportion of Romania).
At the end of 1918 and in the beginning of 1919 (after the union of Transylvania with
Romania), the number of Hungarians decreased. More than 150,000 persons went from
Transylvania to Hungary (Thirring L. cited by Varga, 1998). The decrease recorded in
1930 was followed by a period characterised by further change in political supremacy
(from 1931 to 1941). The Second Dictate of Vienna resulted in mutual population
movements in the region. More than 100,000 people increased the number of North
Transylvanian Hungarians while many Romanians were obliged to leave North
Transylvania. The assimilation process started by Romanians changed the ethnic
situation (e.g. more than half of persons recorded as Yiddish native speakers in 1930
turned to the Hungarian native speakers community) (Varga, 1998). The split in the
region served only to increase the tension: atrocities were committed; populations fled
the area or were forcibly ejected. In demographic terms this meant that in northern
Transylvania the vast majority of Romanian agricultural colonists were forced to leave,
while in the south of the region, 67,000 Hungarians were driven out by the Romanian
authorities (Kocsis, 1995:70).
During the early 1940s Hungarians populated the northern part of Transylvania
overwhelmingly once again. Over 80% of the population in Cluj-Napoca were
Hungarian, and the number of Hungarians exceeded 90% of the population in some of
the Szekler towns (Kocsis, 1995:71). This situation was, of course, short-lived and the
re-annexation of the whole territory to Romania a few years later triggered another
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