Lately, the differences among the different population structures and classes have become more and more obvious. The process of economical, political and social transformations brought about a major growing of the poverty, which induced the exacerbation of the privations of all kind. If in 1989, 7% of the population of the country lived in poverty, in 2000, the rate of poverty increased to 44%. (The White Book of the Government). "The economical collapse was the main cause of the poverty, but an important role was also played by the inequality in distributing the resources and by the lack of an adequate social protection".
      The number of street children in the whole country was estimated at about 3.000 to 5.000. Most of the street children are from Moldavia (a third of them – Iasi is the economical end cultural chief town of this region), and some from Muntenia.
      Iasi is the most important city in Moldavia, region which lies in the East of the Oriental Carpathians. Iasi and its neighborhoods are an area most affected of poverty. The rata of poverty in this region is – according to social studies – of 40,61%, this meaning the higher in the whole country. In this region there is two thirds of the entire number of extremely poor rural areas. Thus, Iasi County represents the main area where the migration route (from the rural areas in the East of the country) stops.
      Although the majority of the children come from the urban environment, a large percent are also represented by the children in the villages near Iasi (25% for Iasi). These children come in the town in the dawn in order to beg or to work, and they go back to their village in the evening. We also shall take into consideration the fact that some of the children in the villages abandon school for helping their children with the agricultural and farm work (in Romania the large majority of agricultural labors are still made manually).

The survey quoted reached the following conclusion regarding this subject when the age of the children forced to work was taken into consideration:	This is the breakdown of the activities for the children in order to contribute to the support of their own and of their families:

The school frequency among these children:	The level of primary education of these children:

      Statistics regarding the general population (after the census in 2002):
- Total number of inhabitants: 21,680,000
- Children under 18 years old: 4,8 million
- Children under 5 years old: 1,1 million
- Children under 1 year old: 230,000
      STATISTICS REGARDING the CHILDREN inside the PROTECTION SYSTEM: In 2004 there were about 82.902 children under the protection of the state. This figure was divised as follows:
* 49.929 children in families (this included 15.682 children in foster families and 26.927 children in their extended families);
* 32.579 children are in residential centers (this includes 5.394 children in private care centers). (By the middle of the years 1990 there were more then 100.000 children in residential centers);
      Children under the state protection were divised on age groups as follows: (at 31.12.2004):

• 0-3 year old: 1.456 children (4%)
• 3-6 years old: 2.425 children (8%)
• 7-9 years old: 3.583 children (11%)
• 10-13 years old: 7.385 children (22%)
• 14-17 years old: 12.565 children (38%)
• 18+ years old: 5.559 children (17%)