Northern Dobruja

Northern Dobruja (Romanian: Dobrogea de Nord or simply Dobrogea; Bulgarian: Северна Добруджа, Severna Dobrudzha) is the part of Dobruja that is in Romania. It is between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea. To the south is Southern Dobruja, the Bulgarian part of Dobruja.

Map of Romania with Northern Dobruja highlighted in orange and southern Dobruja highlighted in yellow

Geography

The territory of Northern Dobruja now forms the counties of Constanța and Tulcea. It has a total area of 15,570 km² and a population of slightly under 900,000.^[1]

Cities

• Constanța
• Tulcea
• Medgidia
• Mangalia

Rivers

• Casimcea
• Slava
• Taița
• Telița

Lakes

• Crapina Lake
• Jijiei Lake
• Traian Lake
• Babadag Lake
• Razim Lake
• Zmeica Lake
• Sinoe Lake
• Tașaul Lake
• Techirghiol Lake

Danube Delta

Main article: Danube Delta

The Danube Delta is made of many lakes. The most important ones are:

• Roșu
• Isac
• Gorgova
• Furtuna
• Ledeanca
• Tatanir
• Merhel
• Matița
• Uzlina
• Dranov
• Lumina
• Puiu
• Puiuleț

Demographics

Ethnic composition

The table below shows Romanian statistics throughout the years:

Ethnicity	1878[2]	1880[3]	1899[3]	1913[4]	19301[5]	1956[6]	1966[6]	1977[6]	1992[6]	2002[6]	2011[7]
All	225,692	139,671	258,242	380,430	437,131	593,659	702,461	863,348	1,019,766	971,643	897,165
Romanian	46,504 (21%)	43,671 (31%)	118,919 (46%)	216,425 (56.8%)	282,844 (64.7%)	514,331 (86.6%)	622,996 (88.7%)	784,934 (90.9%)	926,608 (90.8%)	883,620 (90.9%)	751,250 (83.7%)
Bulgarian	30,177 (13,3%)	24,915 (17%)	38,439 (14%)	51,149 (13.4%)	42,070 (9.6%)	749 (0.13%)	524 (0.07%)	415 (0.05%)	311 (0.03%)	135 (0.01%)	58 (0.01%)
Turkish	48,783 (21,6%)	18,624 (13%)	12,146 (4%)	20,092 (5.3%)	21,748 (5%)	11,994 (2%)	16,209 (2.3%)	21,666 (2.5%)	27,685 (2.7%)	27,580 (2.8%)	22,500 (2.5%)
Tatar	71,146 (31,5%)	29,476 (21%)	28,670 (11%)	21,350 (5.6%)	15,546 (3.6%)	20,239 (3.4%)	21,939 (3.1%)	22,875 (2.65%)	24,185 (2.4%)	23,409 (2.4%)	19,720 (2.2%)
Russian-Lipovan	12,748 (5,6%)	8,250 (6%)	12,801 (5%)	35,859 (9.4%)	26,210 (6%)²	29,944 (5%)	30,509 (4.35%)	24,098 (2.8%)	26,154 (2.6%)	21,623 (2.2%)	13,910 (1.6%)
Ruthenian (Ukrainian from 1956)		455 (0.3%)	13,680 (5%)		33 (0.01%)	7,025 (1.18%)	5,154 (0.73%)	2,639 (0.3%)	4,101 (0.4%)	1,465 (0.1%)	1,177 (0.1%)
Germans	1,134 (0,5%)	2,461 (1.7%)	8,566 (3%)	7,697 (2%)	12,023 (2.75%)	735 (0.12%)	599 (0.09%)	648 (0.08%)	677 (0.07%)	398 (0.04%)	166 (0.02%)
Greek	3,480 (1,6%)	4,015 (2.8%)	8,445 (3%)	9,999 (2.6%)	7,743 (1.8%)	1,399 (0.24%)	908 (0.13%)	635 (0.07%)	1,230 (0.12%)	2,270 (0.23%)	1,447 (0.16%)
Roma		702 (0.5%)	2,252 (0.87%)	3,263 (0.9%)	3,831 (0.88%)	1,176 (0.2%)	378 (0.05%)	2,565 (0.3%)	5,983 (0.59%)	8,295 (0.85%)	11,977 (1.3%)

¹According to the 1926–1938 Romanian administrative division (counties of Constanța and Tulcea), which excluded a part of today's Romania (chiefly the communes of Ostrov and Lipnița, now part of Constanța County) and included a part of today's Bulgaria (parts of General Toshevo and Krushari municipalities)

²Only Russians. (Russians and Lipovans counted separately)

Symbols

Coat of arms of Northern Dobruja

Northern Dobruja is represented by two dolphins in the coat of arms of Romania.

Starting with 2015, Romania observes Dobruja Day on November 14. This day is the day in 1878 when Northern Dobruja became part of the Kingdom of Romania after the Treaty of Berlin.^[8]