Editing Danube Delta (section)

==Inhabitants==
{{more citations needed|date=August 2024}}
[[File:Lipovean.jpg|thumb|Lipovan fisherman of Chilia Veche]]
[[File:Wylkowe-1.JPG|thumb|[[Vylkove]] (Ukraine)]]

With an average population density of 2 people per km<sup>2</sup>, the Danube Delta is one of the least inhabited regions of temperate Europe.<ref name="The Danube Delta-Halmyris">{{Cite web |url=http://www.halmyris.org/history/danube-delta |title=The Danube Delta – Halmyris |website=www.halmyris.org |language=en-US |access-date=18 December 2017 |archive-date=9 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709155001/http://www.halmyris.org/history/danube-delta |url-status=dead }}</ref> On the Romanian side live about 20,000 people, of whom 4,600 live in the port of [[Sulina]].{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}. The rest of the population is scattered among 27 villages, of which only three, all situated marginally, had more than 500 people in 2002.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} The city of [[Tulcea]], at the western edge of the delta, has a population of  65,624 as of 2021; it represents the node of the region and the gate to the delta.<ref name="The Danube Delta-Halmyris"/>

Its acute isolation and harsh conditions of living, based mainly on subsistence, made the Danube Delta a place of emigration, or transit at least. Very few of those born in the region stay there through adulthood; at the same time, the origins of its inhabitants vary widely, as people from many parts of [[Romania]] can be found in the delta. The total population has remained more or less constant throughout the 20th century; there were 12,000 inhabitants in the 1890s, and 14,000 before the Second World War.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} [[Romanians]] account for approximately 80% of the population, and [[Ukrainians]] for 10%. Other people living in the delta include ethnic minorities such as Greeks, Turks and Bulgarians (in 1992). Distinctive to the region, but very rare as an ethnic entity, are the [[Lipovans]], descendants of the Orthodox Old Rite followers who fled from religious persecution in Russia during the 18th century.

On the Ukrainian side, located at the northern edge of the delta, the town of [[Izmail]] has a population of 85,000, [[Kiliya, Ukraine|Kiliya]] a population of 21,800, and [[Vilkovo]], the main center of the [[Lipovan]] community, a population of 9,300.