The 2024 Moldovan census was a census in

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

that was held from 8 April to 7 July 2024.

Transnistria Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a Landlocked country, landlocked Transnistria conflict#International recognition of Transnistria, breakaway state internationally recogn ...

, a breakaway state internationally recognized as part of Moldova, refused to guarantee access and offer security guarantees to the Moldovan authorities to held the census in Corjova and other localities in

Dubăsari District The Dubăsari District () is a Administrative divisions of Moldova, district in the east of Moldova, with the administrative center at Cocieri. As of January 1, 2011, its population was 35,200. This does not include the 715 people that live in th ...

Results

According to the preliminary results of the 2024 census, out of 2,401.2 thousand people, 46.4% (or 1,113.7 thousand people) lived in

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s and 53.6% (1,287.5 thousand people) lived in

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

s. The female population continued to be predominant in 2024, constituting 1,269.8 thousand people or 52.9% of the total population (compared to 52.0% in the 2014 census), while the male population constituted 1,131.4 people or 47.1% of the country's population (compared to 48.0% in 2014). At the 2024 census, 99.1% of the total population declared that they had Moldovan citizenship, of which 15.6% people declared that they also held the citizenship of other states, compared to the 2014 census in which 99.5% of the population declared that they held Moldovan citizenship, including 5.6% that also held that of other states. Of the total population that declared its ethnicity, in the 2024 census, people who declared themselves Moldovan and

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

constituted 77.2% and 7.9%, respectively. Among the ethnic minorities, 4.9% declared themselves Ukrainian, 4.2% Gagauz, 3.2%

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, 1.6% Bulgarian, 0.4% Roma/Gypsy and 0.5% other ethnicities. Of the total population that declared its mother tongue (; distinct from the usually spoken language) in the census, 49.2% declared " Moldovan" and 31.3% declared

, with both adding up to 80.5%. The share of the population that declared Romanian as its mother tongue increased by 8.1% compared to the 2014 census (23.2%), and the share that declared "Moldovan" decreased by 7.8% (56.9% in the 2014 census). Among other languages declared as mother tongues,

stood out with 11.1% of the population, followed by Gagauz with 3.8%, Ukrainian with 2.9%, Bulgarian with 1.2%, Romani/Gypsy with 0.3% and other languages with 0.2%. In contrast, regarding the usually spoken language (; distinct from the mother tongue), 46.0% declared it to be "Moldovan" and 33.2% declared it to be Romanian, with both adding up to 79.2%. The two had together an increase of 0.5% compared to the 2014 census, and there was a significant increase in the share of self-declared speakers of Romanian as their usually spoken language, of 9.5%, as well as a decrease in the share of the self-declared speakers of "Moldovan" as their usually spoken language, of 9%, compared to the 2014 census. In the 2024 census, the percentage of speakers of Russian as their usually spoken language was 15.3%, a 0.7% increase since 2014, with other minority languages' share being lower: 2.3% for Gagauz, 2% for Ukrainian, 0.8% for Bulgarian, 0.3% for Romani and 0.2% for other languages. Compared to 2014, there was a decrease in the share of Ukrainian, Gagauz and Bulgarian of 0.8%, 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. Of the total urban population that declared its ethnicity in 2024, people who declared themselves Moldovan and Romanian constituted 70.5% and 9.7% respectively. Among the ethnic minorities, 6.1% declared themselves Ukrainian, 5.9% Russian, 4.1% Gagauz, 2.1% Bulgarian, 0.6% Roma/Gypsy and 1% other ethnicities. In Chișinău, the proportion was 72.9% Moldovans, 13.1% Romanians, 5.9% Russians, 5.1% Ukrainians, 0.8% Gagauz, 0.9% Bulgarians, 0.1% Roma/Gypsies and 1.2% other ethnicities. In the country's urban areas, the proportion for the mother tongue was 34.2% for "Moldovan" and 37.3% for Romanian (adding up to 71.5%), 20.0% for Russian, 3.4% for Gagauz, 2.6% for Ukrainian, 1.5% for Bulgarian, 0.5% for Romani/Gypsy and 0.4% for other languages. In the capital

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

, the proportion was 28.8% for "Moldovan" and 47.9% for Romanian (adding up to 76.7%), 19.5% for Russian, 2.2% for Ukrainian, 0.4% for Gagauz, 0.4% for Bulgarian, 0.1% for Romani/Gypsy and 0.6% for other languages. Regarding the usually spoken language, the proportion in the urban areas was 31.2% for "Moldovan" and 38.1% for Romanian (adding up to 76.7%), 26.9% for Russian, 1.1% for Ukrainian, 0.9% for Gagauz and Bulgarian, 0.4% for Romani/Gypsy and 0.3% for other languages. In Chișinău, the proportion was 26.1% for "Moldovan" and 49.1% for Romanian (adding up to 75.2%), 23.2% for Russian, 0.9% for Ukrainian, 0.1% for Gagauz and Bulgarian, 0% for Romani/Gypsy and 0.4% for other languages. Most people declared themselves

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

by religion (95.0%). Among the most representated confessional minorities were the following:

Baptists Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

(1.1%),

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...

(0.7%),

Pentecostals Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term ''Pentecostal'' is derived ...

(0.5%) and

Adventists Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Willi ...

(0.3%). The following were declared as well: 0.6%

atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

and 0.8% with no religion.

References

{{Moldovan censuses Censuses in Moldova

Census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...