Romania

Romania ( ( listen) ro-MAY-nee-ə; Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a]) is a sovereign state located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, and Moldova. It has an area of 238,397 square kilometres (92,046 sq mi), making it the twelfth-largest in Europe. It has a predominantly temperate-continental climate with some Oceanic, Mediterranean, and even Scaninavian-Baltic seasonal influences.
With almost 20 million inhabitants, the country is the seventh most populous member state of the European Union and the tenth overall European one. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU and the tenth-largest on the European continent, with 2,106,144 inhabitants as of 2016; other major urban areas include Iași, Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, Constanța, Craiova, and Galați.
The River Danube, Europe's second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km (1,775 mi), coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romania's Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest, include Moldoveanu, at 2,544 m (8,346 ft).
Modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. During World War II, Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, fighting side by side with the Wehrmacht until 1944, when it joined the Allied powers and faced occupation by the Red Army forces. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war. Following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition towards democracy and a capitalist market economy.
In the 21st century, Romania is a middle power and has the world's 47th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 48th largest by PPP, out of 191 countries measured by IMF, Romania ranks 50th in the Human Development Index and is a developing country, with an annual economic growth rate of 7% (as of 2017), the highest in the EU at the time. Following rapid economic growth in the early 2000s, Romania has an economy predominantly based on services, and is a producer and net exporter of machines and electric energy, featuring companies like Automobile Dacia and OMV Petrom. It has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. An overwhelming majority of the population identifies themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are native speakers of Romanian, a Romance language. The cultural history of Romania includes influential artists, musicians, inventors, and sportspeople.