 It started to increase slowly during the late 1990s, and exploded after 2002.Emigration was further facilitated by the entry of Romania in the EU in 2007.By 2011, it reached a peak of nearly 900,000 people, after which the Romanian population has been steadily decreasing as a result of emigration from Spain since 2012 due to the economic problems and unemployment in the country, falling to 669,434 by 2019.