According to an ANIS study, IT and communications produced about 6.67% of Romania's GDP in 2024, and 25.6% of services exports.
According to the European Commission, 2.7% of people employed in Romania are ICT specialists, against 5.0% in the EU. That is the sector's room to grow.
UiPath was founded in Bucharest in 2005 and has traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 21 April 2021. Its headquarters is now in New York.
According to Ziarul Financiar, 1,709 of Bitdefender's 2,145 employees work in Romania. The US listing has been postponed to December 2028.
The income-tax exemption for programmers, announced in 2001, was abolished by emergency ordinance 156/2024 from 1 January 2025.
Tech in Romania: the short answer
Romania's IT sector is real and large. According to a study by the industry association ANIS, IT and communications produced about 6.67% of GDP in 2024, and 195,929 people worked in IT alone. IT and communication services made up 25.6% of all the country's services exports. Two software companies of global scale came out of Bucharest: UiPath, listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2021, and Bitdefender, the cybersecurity company.
The sector is now in a transition phase. According to the European Commission's Digital Decade report of June 2026, 2.7% of people employed in Romania are ICT specialists, against 5.0% on the EU average. The number fell in 2025, the year the income-tax exemption for programmers was abolished. The Commission writes that the sector relies mainly on outsourcing work for international companies, and that Romania currently has no digital "unicorn".
In plain words: Romania is a coding power relative to its size. Most of the code written there is for international companies, and UiPath and Bitdefender show how far the sector can go.
How big is the sector? Three numbers, three definitions
Anyone looking up "how many programmers are there in Romania" will find several answers. They do not contradict each other; they simply count different things:
| Source | What is counted | Number |
|---|---|---|
| ANIS, study of December 2025 | Employees in the IT sector, 2024 | 195,929 |
| Romanian Economic Monitor (Babeș-Bolyai University, with the EBRD and Transilvania IT Cluster) | IT and communications workforce, 2025 | 237,000 (peak of 241,000 in 2023) |
| INS data for CAEN divisions 62–63, as published by Economedia | Employees in programming and information services, end of 2023 | 147,200 |
What matters is the direction, not the exact number: after a decade of growth of more than 10% a year, the number of workers has levelled off. According to the Romanian Economic Monitor, in 2025 the sector employed 3,000 fewer people than a year earlier. IT revenues kept rising: according to ANIS, from €15.6 billion in 2023 to €17.7 billion in 2024. More money, with roughly the same number of people.
For the sector's macro data against the EU, see also our article on the engines of Romania's economy.
UiPath: the big story, and the headquarters that moved to New York
According to UiPath's annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company "was originally founded in Bucharest, Romania in 2005". On 21 April 2021 it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PATH, at $56 a share, raising about $1.3 billion.
In the financial year ended 31 January 2026, UiPath had revenue of $1.61 billion and 3,981 full-time employees. But its registered headquarters is now in New York, and the company incorporated in Delaware in 2015. The report does not say how many of the employees are based in Romania.
That is probably the explanation for the line in the Commission's report that "Romania does not yet have a digital unicorn". The Commission does not spell out its definition, but a company headquartered in New York is not counted as Romanian. This is our interpretation, not a finding of the Commission.
Bitdefender: the company that stayed home
Bitdefender was founded in Bucharest in 2001 by Florin Talpeș and his wife Mariuca, according to the company's website. Unlike UiPath, it has stayed Romanian both in structure and in workforce.
According to Ziarul Financiar, Bitdefender's revenue in 2025 was about $480 million, up 11%, and operating profit $57 million. Of the group's 2,145 employees, 1,709 work in Romania. The US listing, for which the company filed documents back in 2021, has been postponed again: according to the same report from July 2026, the estimated date is now December 2028.
The companies that followed: successes, exits and lessons
eMAG. Romania's online retail giant. In the 2025 financial year the group had revenue of 11.4 billion lei, up 11%. In August 2026 the European Commission cleared Naspers, the South African group behind Prosus, to become its sole owner. In other words, the biggest local story in digital retail attracted a full international owner.
Romania is a coding power relative to its size, and UiPath and Bitdefender show how far the sector can go.
FintechOS. Founded in 2017 by Teodor Blidăruș and Sergiu Negut. In April 2021 it raised $60 million in a Series B round led by Draper Esprit, with offices in Bucharest, London and Amsterdam.
MultiversX (formerly Elrond). A blockchain company from Sibiu, founded in 2018, which changed its name in November 2022. According to StartupCafe, citing Ministry of Finance data, the company's headcount fell from 67 in 2022 to 21 in 2025, and its EGLD token has lost about 99.4% from its 2021 peak. This too is part of a young sector growing up.
The programmers' tax exemption: more than two decades of a benefit that built a sector
On 22 June 2001 Ziarul Financiar reported that Prime Minister Adrian Năstase was promising to abolish "soon" the tax on software developers' wages, to stop the emigration of specialists to countries that pay more. That benefit lasted more than two decades, with conditions that changed along the way.
| When | What changed |
|---|---|
| 2001 | The prime minister announces the abolition of wage tax for programmers to curb emigration |
| November 2023 | Law 296/2023: the exemption is capped at income of up to 10,000 lei a month and one employer |
| 31 December 2024 | Emergency ordinance 156/2024 abolishes the exemption |
| 1 January 2025 | Programmers' wages are subject to ordinary income tax |
What happened next? In an ANIS survey from August and September 2025, 15% of IT companies reported cutting staff, and 64% named the change in tax legislation as the main negative factor for their business. ANIS estimated that the abolition cuts company profitability by 8.8% to 17.6%. The European Commission links the fall in the number of ICT specialists in 2025 to the abolition of the benefits, together with the global slowdown in the sector. Note: this is the Commission's assessment, not proof of cause and effect.
How much do people earn in tech?
According to INS data published by ZiarulProfit, the average net wage in programming and IT consulting in July 2026 was 13,464 lei, the highest of any sector. The average net wage in the economy as a whole that month: 5,820 lei. At about 5.3 lei to the euro, a rate that changes every day, that is about €2,540 net a month in IT.
This is an average for the whole sector, including senior staff. There is no official figure that separates out the pay of junior developers, and their pay varies by company, city and experience. We published the full comparison between occupations in our article on who earns what in Romania.
Where it happens: Bucharest, Cluj, Iași and Timișoara
According to the Romanian Economic Monitor, the concentration of sector workers is highest in Bucharest, followed by the counties of Cluj, Timiș and Iași. Cluj has grown particularly strong over the past 15 years.
International companies are a large part of the story. Amazon, for example, opened its first development centre in Central and Eastern Europe in Iași in 2005. According to the company, its development centre in Romania now employs more than 2,500 professionals, in Iași, Bucharest and Timișoara, and the Amazon SES email service was built entirely in Romania. We wrote about the office districts of northern Bucharest, where many of these employers are based, in a separate article.
The infrastructure helps too: according to the Commission, 96.25% of households in Romania are covered by fibre to the home, against 74.13% on the EU average. For what this means for working from home, see our article on internet speed.
Romania against the EU: the strengths and the room to grow
| Indicator (2025) | Romania | EU average |
|---|---|---|
| ICT specialists as a share of employment | 2.7% | 5.0% |
| ICT graduates as a share of all graduates | 7.10% (among the EU leaders) | No figure in the report |
| Women as a share of ICT specialists | 27.8% (first in the EU) | 19.5% |
| Fibre-to-the-home coverage | 96.25% | 74.13% |
| People with basic digital skills | 31.84% (last in the EU) | No figure in our citation |
The source for every row: the European Commission's Digital Decade report on Romania, June 2026. The picture is interesting: universities that produce many ICT graduates, and a population most of which has not yet acquired basic digital skills. The Commission also describes a "junior gap": companies hesitate to train entry-level workers who leave after a few months.
And the roots? Felix computers and maths olympiads
According to TodaySoftMag, in 1970 Romania began industrial production of the Felix C-256 computer, and in the 1980s original personal computers were designed in the country, such as the aMic in Bucharest and the Prae in Cluj. Romania has taken part in the International Mathematical Olympiad since the first one, in 1959, and according to the olympiad's website it has won 89 gold medals. It has also hosted it six times, most recently in Cluj in 2018.
No source measures a direct link between that past and today's tech sector. What can be said is that a tradition of engineering and mathematics came before the sector, and that the tax exemption of 2001, EU accession and foreign investment built on it. For the wider question of what remained from the Ceaușescu era and what was built after it, see the article that closes this investigation and the story of his rise and fall.
Frequently asked questions
How many people work in tech in Romania?
It depends on the definition. According to ANIS, 195,929 people worked in the IT sector in 2024. According to the Romanian Economic Monitor, 237,000 people worked in IT and communications together in 2025. According to the European Commission, ICT specialists make up 2.7% of all employment.
Is UiPath still a Romanian company?
It was founded in Bucharest in 2005, but its registered headquarters is in New York and it is incorporated in Delaware. According to the annual report, the UiPath Foundation, which the company set up, operates in Romania.
Does the tax exemption for programmers still exist?
No. The exemption was abolished by emergency ordinance 156/2024, and since 1 January 2025 programmers' wages have been subject to income tax like any other wage.
How much does a programmer earn in Romania?
According to INS, the average net wage in programming and IT consulting in July 2026 was 13,464 lei, about €2,540 at today's rate. That is an average for the whole sector, and beginners usually earn less.
The bottom line
Romania's tech sector is one of its great success stories. It has hundreds of thousands of workers, billions in exports and two companies of global scale. After a decade of rapid growth it is entering a phase of maturity: revenues are rising, and outsourcing work for international companies is the base from which a second generation of large local companies can grow. Anyone arriving in Bucharest will find a lively tech scene, mostly in the offices of international companies in the north of the city.
Moti Azulay, Compass Group Romania
Sources: Curs de Guvernare: ANIS study on IT's contribution to GDP, December 2025 · StartupCafe: ANIS survey 2025 · Economedia: Romanian Economic Monitor on the IT labour market, May 2026 · Economedia: IT employees per INS, 2024 · European Commission: Digital Decade report 2026, Romania · eunews: ICT specialists in the EU, 2025 · UiPath: 10-K report for financial year 2026 · Renaissance Capital: the UiPath IPO · Bitdefender: 20 years · Ziarul Financiar: Bitdefender results for 2025, July 2026 · Mobilissimo: Naspers sole owner of eMAG, August 2026 · Trending Topics: FintechOS Series B · StartupCafe: MultiversX, June 2026 · Ziarul Financiar: the tax exemption announcement, 22.6.2001 · Boundless: timeline of the IT tax exemption · ZiarulProfit: wages by sector, July 2026 (INS) · Amazon: 20 years in Romania · TodaySoftMag: computers designed and built in Romania · IMO: Romania at the International Mathematical Olympiad · National Bank of Romania: exchange rates
This article is for general information only and is not investment advice. The figures come from the sources above, and in some cases different sources count the sector using different definitions. The leu exchange rate changes. Correct as of 23 October 2026.
Forget the dictatorship economy
- Forget the dictatorship economy: the new Romania
- Who earns what in Romania today
- Agriculture: Europe's breadbasket
- Finance: banks, the stock exchange and money
- Tech: from UiPath to Bitdefender (you are here)
- Food and wine
- Culture: festivals, film and music
- Abundance: malls, consumption and brands
- Western brands: consulting, accounting and hotels
- What drives growth: EU funds versus investment
- From dictatorship to market economy: what remained and what was built
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This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult local professionals before any transaction.
