Every year, on average, about 330 more children and teenagers die in Romania than if it had the rest of the EU's death rates

Pneumonia#

Each year, on average 99 children and teenagers aged 1–19 die of pneumonia in Romania. At the rest of the EU's rates it would be about 10. By age group, the rate is 8.8 to 15.2 times higher.

Part of this gap may come from how deaths are coded: in Romania few deaths are left with an unspecified cause, while elsewhere some of them end up in that category. So the page also compares respiratory disease, infections and unspecified causes taken together. Even then, Romania's rate is 2.2 to 3.7 times higher, and the excess is about 110 children and teenagers a year, as much as for pneumonia and other respiratory disease together.

For babies under one, the same gap is described on the page Infant pneumonia.

Roads and water#

Transport accidents kill on average 165 children and teenagers a year in Romania; at the rest of the EU's rates it would be about 75. Under 15, the rate is 2.9 to 4.0 times higher. At 15–19 the gap is smaller: 1.7 times.

Drowning kills on average 57 children and teenagers a year, against about 19 at the rest of the EU's rates. At 10–14 the rate is 5.0 times higher, and at 15–19 4.1 times. Under 10, the gap is small and the cases few.

Teenagers#

At 15–19, the death rate is 46% higher than in the rest of the EU (36.5 against 25.0 per 100,000).

Suicide does not explain the gap: at 15–19, Romania's rate was 0.8 times the rest of the EU's in 2021–2023 and 1.1 times in 2017–2019. In numbers, the largest part of the gap comes from transport accidents, where the ratio is lower (1.7); drowning (4.1 times) and pneumonia (8.8 times) are far more frequent than in the rest of the EU.

Then and now#

The gap has narrowed. In 2017–2019, on average 1,047 children and teenagers died in Romania each year, about 490 more than at the rest of the EU's rates. In 2021–2023, 902, about 330 more. The rest of the EU's rates stayed almost the same; Romania's fell at every age.

In the same series: Infant pneumonia · People your age · Tuberculosis in Romania

What these data do not show#

• Rates are for all children of a given age, not for any one child.
• The cause is the one coded as underlying on the death certificate; countries code differently, especially respiratory disease and unspecified causes. Total deaths do not depend on this.
• "Rest of the EU" is dominated by the large countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain). The comparison says how far Romania is from their average, not from any one country.
• Romania's population by age is estimated and was revised after the 2021 census (at 5–9 it rises by about 7% between 2021 and 2022), which slightly lowers the 2022–2023 rates. If it is overstated (for example, children who have moved abroad and are still counted), Romania's rate comes out lower than it is. The fall between the two periods also shows in the number of deaths, which does not depend on population: from 1,047 to 902 a year.
• The numbers are three-year averages, so they do not hang on a single year. For rare causes even three years give few cases; so the page names a cause only where Romania has at least 30 deaths.

How the analysis was done#

• Deaths by cause and age group (1–4, 5–9, 10–14, 15–19), both sexes, residents: Eurostat, hlth_cd_aro, 2017–2019 and 2021–2023. Population on 1 January: Eurostat demo_pjangroup and, for ages 1–4, demo_pjan (single years).
• Rate = deaths per 100,000 children of that age. "Rest of the EU" = the other 26 countries (without the missing years for Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Latvia), pooled deaths over pooled population. Each country and year uses the same data for the total and for every cause.
• "Would have died at the rest of the EU's rates" = the rest of the EU's rate times Romania's population of the same age. The gap by cause is computed the same way for each cause; the causes add up to the total.
• The thresholds were set before the full computation, after a first look at the total rates and a few causes: "N times" only for age groups with a ratio of at least 1.5 in both periods; a cause is named only where Romania has at least 30 deaths and the ratio is at least 2 in both periods; next to pneumonia the page gives the ratio for respiratory disease, infections and unspecified causes together; the yearly excess is rounded to tens.

Questions#

Are all these deaths preventable?

That cannot be said case by case. What can be said is that at the same ages far fewer children die of these causes in the rest of the EU, so lower rates are possible.

Is it the pandemic?

No. The gap was larger before the pandemic, in 2017–2019, when Romania had about 490 extra deaths of children and teenagers a year.

Why are babies not included?

Deaths in the first year of life have other causes and other data; they are on the page about infant pneumonia. This page covers children aged 1 to 19.

Sources#

All sources were opened on 1 November 2026.

• Eurostat, Causes of death by age group and sex, residents (hlth_cd_aro), 2017–2019 and 2021–2023.
• Eurostat, Population on 1 January by age group and sex (demo_pjangroup).
• Eurostat, Population on 1 January by age and sex (demo_pjan).