Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a
landlocked country in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
to the west and
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
to the north, east, and south.
The
unrecognised breakaway state of
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 ...
lies across the
Dniester
The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...
river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova is a
unitary parliamentary
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
representative democratic republic with its capital in
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 country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.
Most of Moldovan territory was a part of the
Principality of Moldavia
Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially independent and later auto ...
from the 14th century until 1812, when it was
ceded to the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
by the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
(to which Moldavia was a
vassal state
A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to ...
) and became known as
Bessarabia. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which three years later united with
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...
to form
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
. but Russian rule was restored over the whole of the region in 1878. During the 1917
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
, Bessarabia briefly became an
autonomous state within the
Russian Republic
The Russian Republic,. referred to as the Russian Democratic Federative Republic in the 1918 Constitution, was a short-lived state which controlled, ''de jure'', the territory of the former Russian Empire after its proclamation by the Rus ...
. In February 1918, it declared independence and then integrated into Romania later that year following a vote of its assembly. The decision was disputed by
Soviet Russia, which in 1924 established, within the
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...
, a so-called
Moldavian autonomous republic on partially Moldovan-inhabited territories to the east of Bessarabia. In 1940, as a consequence of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Romania was
compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, leading to the creation of the
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR).
On 27 August 1991, as the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...
was underway, the Moldavian SSR
declared independence and took the name Moldova.
But, the strip of Moldovan territory on the east bank of the Dniester has been under the ''de facto'' control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.
The
constitution of Moldova
The current Constitution was adopted on 29 July 1994 by the Moldovan Parliament and represents the supreme law of Moldova. It came into force on 27 August 1994 and has since been amended 10 times.
The Constitution established the Republic of ...
was adopted in 1994, and the country became a
parliamentary republic
A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the Executive (government), executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). ...
. The
president is
head of state
A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...
and a
prime minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
is
head of government
In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...
.
Under the presidency of
Maia Sandu,
elected in 2020 on a pro-Western and anti-corruption ticket, Moldova has pursued membership in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, and was granted candidate status in June 2022. Accession talks to the EU began on 13 December 2023. Sandu has suggested an end to
Moldova's constitutional commitment to military neutrality in favour of a closer alliance with
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
. She strongly condemned
Russia's invasion of neighbouring
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
.
Moldova is the
second poorest country in Europe by GDP per official capita after Ukraine, and much of its GDP is dominated by the
service sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...
. It has one of the lowest
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, Education Index, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income i ...
es in Europe, ranking 76th in the world (2022).
Moldova ranks 68th in the world on the
Global Innovation Index
The Global Innovation Index is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for and success in innovation, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It was started in 2007 by INSEAD and ''World Business'', a Britis ...
. Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...
, the
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the
GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, the
Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
The Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is a regional international organization focusing on multilateral political and economic initiatives aimed at fostering cooperation, peace, stability and prosperity in the Black Sea ...
, and the
Association Trio
The Association Trio (, ''asotsirebuli trio''; ; , ''asotsiiovane trio''), also known as the Associated Trio, is a tripartite format for the enhanced cooperation, coordination, and dialogue between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Ministry ...
.
Etymology
The name ''Moldova'' is derived from the
Moldova River (); the valley of this river served as a political centre at the time of the
foundation of the
Principality of Moldavia
Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially independent and later auto ...
in 1359. The origin of the name of the river remains unclear. According to a legend recounted by Moldavian chroniclers
Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie or Demetrius; Cantemir (; ; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known by other spellings, was a Moldavian prince, statesman, and man of letters. He twice served as voivode of Moldavia (March–April 1693 and 1710–1711). Durin ...
and
Grigore Ureche
Grigore Ureche (; 1590–1647) was a Moldavian chronicler who wrote on Moldavian history in his ''Letopisețul Țării Moldovei'' ('' Chronicles of the Land of Moldavia''), covering the period from 1359 to 1594.
Biography
Grigore Ureche was th ...
, Prince
Dragoș named the river after hunting
aurochs
The aurochs (''Bos primigenius''; or ; pl.: aurochs or aurochsen) is an extinct species of Bovini, bovine, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of t ...
: following the chase, the prince's exhausted hound ''Molda (Seva)'' drowned in the river. The dog's name, given to the river, extended to the principality.
For a short time in the 1990s, at the founding of the
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...
, the name of the current Republic of Moldova was also spelled ''Moldavia''. After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...
, the country began to use the Romanian name, . Officially, the name ''Republic of Moldova'' is designated by the United Nations.
History

The history of Moldova spans
prehistoric cultures,
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...
and
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
empires, and periods of foreign rule and modern
independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...
.
Evidence of human habitation dates back 800,000–1.2 million years, with significant developments in
agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
,
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
, and settlement during the
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
and
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
s. In
antiquity, Moldova's location made it a crossroads for invasions by the
Scythians
The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...
,
Goths
The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...
,
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...
, and other tribes, followed by periods of
Roman and
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
control. The medieval
Principality of Moldavia
Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially independent and later auto ...
emerged in the 1350s, and was the medieval precursor of modern Moldova and
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
. It reached prominence under rulers like
Stephen the Great
Stephen III, better known as Stephen the Great (; ; died 2 July 1504), was List of rulers of Moldavia, Voivode (or Prince) of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son of and co-ruler with Bogdan II of Moldavia, Bogdan II, who was murdered in ...
before becoming a
vassal state
A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to ...
of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
from 1538, until the 19th century.
In 1812, following
one of several Russian–Turkish wars, the eastern half of the principality,
Bessarabia, was annexed by the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
, marking the beginning of Russian influence in the region. In 1918, Bessarabia briefly became independent as the
Moldavian Democratic Republic and, following the decision of the Parliament (Sfatul Țării), united with
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
. During the Second World War it was occupied by the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
which reclaimed it from Romania. It joined the Union in 1940 as the
Moldavian SSR. During this period, policies of
Russification and economic transformation deeply influenced the region.
The
dissolution of the USSR
Dissolution may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Dissolution'', a 2002 novel by Richard Lee Byers in the War of the Spider Queen series
* Dissolution (Sansom novel), ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), by C. J. Sansom, 2003
* Dissolution (Binge no ...
in 1991 led to
declared independence, followed by the
Transnistria War in 1992, a conflict that left the
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 ...
n region as a de facto independent state. Moldova continues to navigate a complex relationship between pro-Western and pro-Russian factions. In recent years, it has pursued closer ties with the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, submitting a formal membership application in 2022.
In the
November 2020 presidential election, the pro-European opposition candidate
Maia Sandu was elected as the new president of the republic, becoming the first female elected president of Moldova. In the
November 2024 presidential election, President Maia Sandu was re-elected with 55% of the vote in the run-off.
Politics
The Republic of Moldova is a
constitutional republic with a
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...
parliamentary system
A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their Election, democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of t ...
of government and competitive,
multi-party elections. The constitution provides for executive and
legislative
A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...
branches as well as an independent
judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
and a clear
separation of powers
The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state (polity), state power (usually Legislature#Legislation, law-making, adjudication, and Executive (government)#Function, execution) and requires these operat ...
. The
president serves as the
head of state
A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...
, is elected every four years, and can be re-elected once. The
prime minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
serves as the
head of government
In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...
, appointed by the president with
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
's support. The head of government in turn assembles a
cabinet, subject to parliamentary approval. Legislative authority is vested in the unicameral
Parliament of Moldova
The parliament of the Republic of Moldova () is the supreme representative body of the Republic of Moldova, the only state legislative authority, being a unicameral structure composed of 101 elected MPs on lists, for a period or legislature o ...
which has 101 seats and whose members are elected by popular vote on
party lists every four years. The president's official residence is the
Presidential Palace, Chișinău
The Presidential Palace () is the official residence of the President of Moldova.
History
The building was built between 1984 and 1987 by Yuri Tumanean, Arkady Zaltman, and Viktor Iavorski. The building was built on the site of the German Lut ...
.
After the prime minister and government resigned in 2020 and the president and parliament failed to form a new government, early parliamentary elections were held in July 2021. According to
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers, the
2021 parliamentary elections were well-administered and competitive, and
fundamental freedoms were largely respected. The
Party of Action and Solidarity won 63 seats in the 101-seat parliament, enough to form a single-party majority.
The 1994
Constitution of Moldova
The current Constitution was adopted on 29 July 1994 by the Moldovan Parliament and represents the supreme law of Moldova. It came into force on 27 August 1994 and has since been amended 10 times.
The Constitution established the Republic of ...
sets the framework for the government of the country. A parliamentary majority of at least two-thirds is required to amend the
Constitution of Moldova
The current Constitution was adopted on 29 July 1994 by the Moldovan Parliament and represents the supreme law of Moldova. It came into force on 27 August 1994 and has since been amended 10 times.
The Constitution established the Republic of ...
, which cannot be revised in times of war or national emergency. Amendments to the Constitution affecting the state's sovereignty, independence, or unity can only be made after a majority of voters support the proposal in a referendum. Furthermore, no revision can be made to limit the fundamental rights of people enumerated in the Constitution.
The 1994 constitution also establishes an
independent Constitutional Court, composed of six judges (two appointed by the President, two by Parliament, and two by the Supreme Council of
Magistrature), serving six-year terms, during which they are irremovable and not subordinate to any power. The court is invested with the power of
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are in ...
over all
acts of parliament, over
presidential decrees, and over
international treaties signed by the country.
The head of state is the President of Moldova, who between 2001 and 2015 was elected by the Moldovan Parliament, requiring the support of three-fifths of the deputies (at least 61 votes). This system was designed to decrease executive authority in favour of the legislature. Nevertheless, the
Constitutional Court ruled on 4 March 2016 that this constitutional change adopted in 2000 regarding the presidential election was unconstitutional, thus reverting the election method of the president to a
two-round system
The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...
direct election
Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they want to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are chosen ...
.
Foreign relations
After achieving independence from the Soviet Union, Moldova's foreign policy was designed with a view to establishing relations with other European countries, neutrality, and European Union integration. In May 1995, the country signed the
CIS Interparliamentary Assembly Convention to become a member and was also admitted in July 1995 to the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...
.
Moldova became a member state of the United Nations the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...
(OSCE), the
North Atlantic Cooperation Council, the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
, the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...
and the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1992. 1994 saw Moldova become a participant in
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
's
Partnership for Peace programme. Moldova joined the
Francophonie
The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...
in 1996, the
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
in 2001, and the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...
in 2002.
In 2005, Moldova and the European Union established an action plan that sought to improve cooperation between Moldova and the union. At the end of 2005, the
European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM) was established at the joint request of the presidents of Moldova and Ukraine. EUBAM assists the Moldovan and Ukrainian governments in approximating their border and customs procedures to EU standards and offers support in both countries' fight against cross-border crime.
After the 1990–1992
War of Transnistria
The Transnistria War (; ) was an armed conflict that broke out on 2 November 1990 in Dubăsari between pro-Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, PMR) forces, including the Transnistrian Republican Guard, militia and neo- Cossack un ...
, Moldova sought a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Transnistria region by working with Romania, Ukraine, and Russia, calling for international mediation, and co-operating with the OSCE and UN fact-finding and observer missions. The
foreign minister of Moldova,
Andrei Stratan, repeatedly stated that the Russian troops stationed in the breakaway region were there against the will of the Moldovan government and called on them to leave "completely and unconditionally". In 2012, a
security zone incident resulted in the death of a civilian, raising tensions with Russia.
In September 2010, the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
approved a grant of €90 million to Moldova. The money was to supplement US$570 million in International Monetary Fund loans, World Bank and other bilateral support already granted to Moldova. In April 2010, Romania offered Moldova development aid worth of €100 million while the number of scholarships for Moldovan students doubled to 5,000. According to a lending agreement signed in February 2010, Poland provided US$15 million as a component of its support for Moldova in its European integration efforts. The first joint meeting of the Governments of Romania and Moldova, held in March 2012, concluded with several bilateral agreements in various fields. The European orientation "has been the policy of Moldova in recent years and this is the policy that must continue,"
Nicolae Timofti told lawmakers before
his election in 2012.
On 29 November 2013, at a summit in
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
, Moldova signed an
association agreement with the European Union dedicated to the European Union's '
Eastern Partnership' with ex-Soviet countries. The ex-Romanian President
Traian Băsescu stated that Romania will make all efforts for Moldova to join the EU as soon as possible. Likewise, Traian Băsescu declared that the
unification of Moldova and Romania is the next national project for Romania, as more than 75% of the population speaks Romanian.
Russia
A document written in 2021 by the Russia's FSB's Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation, titled "Strategic objectives of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova" sets out a 10-year plan to destabilise Moldova, using
energy blackmail, and political/elite sources in Moldova that are favourable to Russia and the Orthodox Church. Russia denies any such plan.
Religious leaders play a role in shaping foreign policy. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Government has frequently used its connections with the
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
to block and stymie the integration of former Soviet states like Moldova into the West.
In February 2023, Russia canceled a 2012 decree underpinning Moldova's sovereignty.
In May 2023, the Moldovan government announced the immediate suspension of its participation in the Commonwealth of Independent States and its intentions to ultimately withdraw from the organisation entirely. In July 2023, Moldova passed a legislation removing it from membership in the
CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.
On 25 July 2023, the Moldovan government summoned the Russian ambassador Oleg Vasnetsov to Moldova after media reports of alleged spying devices on the rooftop of their embassy in Chişinău. On 26 July 2023, the Moldovan government expelled 45 Russian diplomats and embassy staff due to "hostile actions" intended to destabilise the Republic of Moldova, according to Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu. On 30 July, the Russian embassy announced that it would suspend consular appointments "for technical reasons".
The Moldovan
Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) also ended all partnership agreements with Russia's
FSB after sending official notifications to the authorities in Moscow.
European Union accession

Moldova has set 2030 as the target date for EU Accession.
Moldova signed the Association Agreement with the European Union in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
on 27 June 2014. The signing came after the accord was drafted in Vilnius in November 2013.
Moldova signed the membership application to join the EU on 3 March 2022. On 23 June 2022, Moldova was officially granted
candidate status by EU leaders. The United Nations Development Programme is also providing assistance to Moldova in implementing the necessary reforms for full accession by 2030. The European Union's
Josep Borrell has confirmed that the pathway to accession does not depend upon a resolution of the
Transnistria conflict.
On 27 June, Moldova signed a comprehensive free trade agreement with the
European Free Trade Association
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe, European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. ...
. On 28 June 2023, the European Union announced a €1.6 billion support and investment programme for Moldova, as well as confirming reductions in the price of mobile data and voice roaming charges in Moldova by European and Moldovan telecoms operators, as well as Moldova joining the EU's joint gas purchase platform.
Formal accession talks began on 13 December 2023. A referendum on joining the EU is planned for autumn 2024, there will be no voting stations in Transnistria, however residents there will be free to travel into other areas of Moldova to vote, should they wish to.
In Moldova's referendum on joining the EU, a narrow 50.17% voted "yes," with Maia Sandu alleging "unprecedented" outside interference. Sandu received 42% in the simultaneous presidential election, while her rival, Alexandr Stoianoglo, garnered 26%, leading to a run-off on 3 November 2024. The referendum was seen as a test of Moldova's commitment to EU integration, amid claims of vote manipulation by criminal groups.
Security
The European Union created a
Partnership Mission in Moldova through its
Common Security and Defence Policy on 24 April 2023. The mission seeks to support the government of Moldova in countering hybrid threats the country faces as a result of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
.
A memorandum dated 29 March 2023 stated that the mission aims at "enhancing the resilience of Moldova's security sector in the area of crisis management as well as enhancing resilience to hybrid threats, including cybersecurity, and countering foreign information manipulation and interference". The initial mandate of the mission is expected to be for two years and it will be made up of up to 40 police and customs officers and judicial officials.
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
,
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
,
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
, Germany,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, Sweden, the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
,
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
, and
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
have all voiced support for the mission.
On 2 February 2023 Moldova passed a law introducing criminal penalties for
separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...
, including prison terms. The law continues with penalties for financing and inciting separatism, plotting against Moldova, and collecting and stealing information that could harm the country's sovereignty, independence and integrity.
Military
The Moldovan armed forces consists of the
Ground Forces and
Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
.
Moldova maintains a standing army of just 6,500 soldiers, and spends just 0.4 percent of its GDP on defence, far behind its regional neighbours.
Moldova accepted all relevant arms control obligations of the former Soviet Union. On 30 October 1992, Moldova ratified the
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which establishes comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment and provides for the destruction of weapons in excess of those limits. The country acceded to the provisions of the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty in October 1994 in Washington, D.C. It does not have nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological weapons. Moldova joined the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's
Partnership for Peace on 16 March 1994.
Moldova is committed to a number of international and regional control of arms regulations such as the
UN Firearms Protocol,
Stability Pact Regional Implementation Plan, the UN Programme of Action (PoA), and the
OSCE Documents on Stockpiles of Conventional Ammunition. Since declaring independence in 1991, Moldova has participated in UN peacekeeping missions in
Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
,
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest city and ...
,
Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
, and
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
. On 12 November 2014, the US donated to Moldovan Armed Forces 39
Humvees and 10 trailers, with a value of US$700,000, to the 22nd Peacekeeping Battalion of the Moldovan National Army to "increase the capability of Moldovan peacekeeping contingents."
Moldova signed a military agreement with Romania to strengthen regional security in 2015. The agreement is part of Moldova's strategy to reform its military and cooperate with its neighbours.
Since 2022, the army has begun a process of modernisation, and has been provided with more than €87 million in support for the modernisation of the defence sector and the strengthening of security through the
European Peace Facility.
In October 2022, Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii claimed that 90 percent of the country's military equipment is outdated and of Soviet origin, dating back to the 1960s and 1980s. In April 2023, Valeriu Mija, Secretary of State for Defence Policy and National Army Reform in the Defence Ministry, claimed that Moldova needed $275 million to modernise its armed forces, especially in light of
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the presence of
1,500 Russian soldiers in Transnistria. In June 2023, Poland also sent a transport of military equipment worth €8 million (including
drones, laptops,
explosive ordnance disposal equipment, and ultrasound equipment) to the
Moldovan police to increase the country's internal security. Analysts at the Centre for European Policy Analysis have called for further western weapon donations.
Human rights
Freedom House
Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...
ranked Moldova as a "partly free" country with a score of 62/100 in 2023. They summarised their finds as follows: "Moldova has a competitive electoral environment, and
freedoms of assembly,
speech
Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...
, and
religion
Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
are mostly protected. Nonetheless,
pervasive corruption, links between major political figures and powerful economic interests, and critical deficiencies in the justice sector and the rule of law all continue to hamper democratic governance." According to
Transparency International
Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil s ...
, Moldova's
Corruption Perceptions Index
The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index that scores and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as assessed by experts and business executives. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entr ...
improved to 39 points in 2022 from 34 in 2020.
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
improved Moldova's
Press Freedom Index ranking from 89th in 2020 to 40th in 2022, while cautioning that "Moldova's media are diverse but extremely polarised, like the country itself, which is marked by political instability and excessive influence by oligarchs."
According to
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
's 2022/23 report, "No visible progress was made in reducing instances of torture and other ill-treatment in detention. Impunity continued for past human rights violations by law enforcement agencies. New "temporary" restrictions on public assemblies were introduced. The rights of
LGBTI people were not fully realised, leading to cases of harassment, discrimination and violence. Some refugee reception centres turned away religious and ethnic minority refugees. In the breakaway Transdniestria region, prosecution and imprisonment for peaceful dissent continued." On 18 June 2023, some 500 LGBT activists and supporters held a
Pride parade in the capital city of Chișinău which for the first time needed no heavy police cordons to protect them from protesters largely linked to the Orthodox church.
According to
Human Rights Report of the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
, released in 2022, "While authorities investigated reports of human rights abuses and corruption committed by officials, the process was slow and burdensome. During the year, authorities indicted and detained several former high-level officials including former President Igor Dodon, former member of parliament Vladimir Andronachi, Shor Party member of parliament Marina Tauber and former director of Moldovan Railways Anatolie Topala. None of these cases resulted in conviction by a court at year's end. Authorities took some steps to identify, investigate, and prosecute officials for human rights abuses, but progress was slow."
In a meeting with the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
in October 2022, EU representatives "welcomed positive developments in Moldova such as the ratification of the
Istanbul Convention
The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, is a International human rights instruments, human rights treaty of the Council of Europe oppos ...
on preventing and combating violence against women, the adoption of legislation on
hate crime, and the ongoing work to reform the Electoral Code. It encouraged Moldovan authorities to address shortcomings identified by OSCE/ODIHR and the
Venice Commission
The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin ...
across all areas and ensure effective and continuous implementation of human rights legislation." The
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights' 2016 recommendations on hate crimes were "largely reflected in amendments to the Criminal Code adopted by the Moldovan Parliament and published on 3 June 2022", but the report notes that Moldovan law enforcement officers often fail to record the bias motivations behind hate crimes, and additionally recommended "developing its victim support system to ensure effective access to justice, assistance, and protection services for hate crime victims". In 2021, 8 hate crimes were recorded, 7 of which reached a successful conviction, with one going to prosecution but without a conviction.
Administrative divisions
Moldova is divided into 32 districts (''raioane'', singular ''
raion
A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...
''), three municipalities and two autonomous regions ("autonomous territorial units",
Gagauzia and the
Left Bank of the Dniester). The final status of Transnistria is
disputed, as the central government does not control that territory. 10 other cities, including
Comrat and
Tiraspol, the administrative seats of the two autonomous territories, also have
municipality status.
Moldova has 66 cities (towns), including 13 with municipality status, and 916 communes. Another 700 villages are too small to have a separate administration and are administratively part of either cities (41 of them) or communes (659). This makes for a total of 1,682 localities in Moldova, two of which are uninhabited.
The largest city in Moldova is Chișinău with a population of approx. 695,400 people. The second largest city is Tiraspol at 129,500, part of the
unrecognised breakaway region of
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 ...
, followed by Bălți (146,900) and Bender (91,000).
Law enforcement and emergency services
The Moldovan police force (
General Police Inspectorate) reports to the
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) and is the primary law enforcement body, responsible for internal security, public order, traffic, and criminal investigations. Several agencies responsible for border management, emergency situations, migration and asylum also report to the ministry. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security forces.
The Moldovan Police are divided into state and municipal organisations. State police provide law enforcement throughout Moldova while municipal police operate at the local
administrative level. National and municipal police forces often collaborate closely for law enforcement purposes. The
Special Forces Brigade "Fulger" is a specialised combat-ready police force primarily responsible for tackling organised crime, serious violent crime, and hostage situations. They are subordinate to the General Police Inspectorate and therefore under strict civilian control.
There are also a number of more specialised police institutions including the Police Department of Chisinau Municipality and the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation. The
Moldovan Border Police are responsible for border security. It was a military branch until 2012 when it was put under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to ''The Law on Police Use of Force Worldwide,'' "Moldova does not regulate and restrict the use of firearms by law enforcement officials as international law requires. Police use of a firearm can only be lawful where necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury or a grave and proximate threat to life."
The
Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) is a Moldovan state body specialised in ensuring
national security
National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...
by exercising all appropriate
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...
and
counter-intelligence measures, such as: collecting, processing, checking and capitalising the information needed to identify, prevent and counteract any actions that according to law represent an internal or external threat to independence, sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, constitutional order, democratic development, internal security of the state, society and citizens, the statehood of the Republic of Moldova, the stable functioning of vitally important branches of the national economy, both on the territory of the Republic of Moldova and abroad.
Emergency services in Moldova consist of
emergency medical services
Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to d ...
,
search and rescue
Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...
units, and a state
firefighting service. There are two hospitals in the capital city Chișinău, the primary being Medpark International Hospital, and general hospitals in
Bălți,
Briceni,
Cahul, and
Călărași
Călărași (), the capital of Călărași County in the Muntenia region, is situated in south-east Romania, on the banks of the Danube's Borcea branch, at about from the Bulgarian border and from Bucharest. It is one of six Romanian county se ...
. Moldova has a universal healthcare system through a
mandatory health insurance scheme. Casa Mariorei, founded in 2002, is a
domestic violence shelter in Chișinău which provides shelter, healthcare, legal advice, and psychosocial support for native Moldovan, immigrant, and refugee women.
Geography
Moldova is a landlocked country situated in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the
Balkans
The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...
in the
Black Sea Basin, between latitudes
45° and
49° N, and mostly between meridians
26° and
30° E (a small area lies east of 30°). The country lies to the east of the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...
and is bordered by
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
to its west and by
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
to its north, east, and south. The total length of the national boundaries is 1,389 km, including 939 km with Ukraine and 450 km with Romania. The country is separated from Romania on the west by the
Prut river and on the east from Ukraine by the
Dniester
The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...
river. The total land area is , of which is water. The largest part of the country (around 88% of the area) lies in the
Bessarabia region, while a narrow strip in the east is located in the
unrecognised breakaway state of
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 ...
on the eastern bank of the Dniester.

Although the country is technically landlocked, in 1999 Moldova acquired from Ukraine (in exchange for ceding a stretch of contested road in the east of the country) a 0.45 kilometer river frontage to the Danube, on the confluence of the
Danube
The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
and Prut rivers. This has transformed the old village of
Giurgiulești (in the extreme south-west of the country) into a
river port, providing Moldova access to
international waters
The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...
via the Danube and the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
. The Dniester river, which rises in Ukraine near the city of
Drohobych
Drohobych ( ; ; ) is a city in the south of Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Drohobych Raion and hosts the administration of Drohobych urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. In 1939–1941 and 1944–1959 it w ...
, passes through Moldova, separating the main territory from its unrecognised breakaway region Transnistria, and empties into the Black Sea in Ukraine. At its closest point, Moldova is separated from the
Dniester Liman, an estuary of the Black Sea, by only 3 km of Ukrainian territory.
While most of the country is hilly, elevations never exceed , the highest point being the
Bălănești Hill. Moldova's hills are part of the
Moldavian Plateau, which geologically originate from the Carpathian Mountains. Its subdivisions in Moldova include the Dniester Hills (Northern Moldavian Hills and Dniester Ridge), the Moldavian Plain (Middle Prut Valley and
Bălți Steppe), and the Central Moldavian Plateau (Ciuluc-Soloneț Hills, Cornești Hills—
Codri Massive, "Codri" meaning "forests"—Lower Dniester Hills, Lower Prut Valley, and Tigheci Hills). In the south, the country has a small flatland, the
Bugeac Plain. The territory of Moldova east of the river Dniester is split between parts of the
Podolian Plateau, and parts of the
Eurasian Steppe
The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...
. Moldova's exceptionally rich
Chernozem soil covers around three-quarters of the country's land area.
Moldova's capital and largest city is
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 ...
, with approximately a third of the country's population residing in its metro area. Chișinău is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the country, on the river
Bîc, a tributary of the
Dniester
The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...
. Moldova's second-largest city is
Tiraspol, which lies on the eastern bank of the Dniester and is the capital of the
unrecognised breakaway region of
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 ...
. The country's third-largest city is
Bălți, often referred to as the 'northern capital'. It is situated north of the capital Chișinău, and is located on the river
Răut, a tributary of the Dniester, on a hilly landscape in the Bălți steppe.
Comrat is the administrative centre of the
autonomous region
An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, zone, entity, unit, region, subdivision, province, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or territory, internal territory of a sovereign state that has ...
of
Gagauzia.
Climate
Moldova has a climate which is moderately continental; its proximity to the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
leads to the climate being mildly cold in the autumn and winter and relatively cool in the spring and summer.
The summers are warm and long, with temperatures averaging about and the winters are relatively mild and dry, with January temperatures averaging . Annual rainfall, which ranges from around in the north to in the south, can vary greatly; long dry spells are not unusual. The heaviest rainfall occurs in early summer and again in October; heavy showers and thunderstorms are common. Because of the irregular terrain, heavy summer rains often cause erosion and river silting.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Moldova was on 21 July 2007 in
Camenca. The lowest temperature ever recorded was on 20 January 1963 in Brătușeni, Edineț county.
Biodiversity
Phytogeographically, Moldova is split between the
East European Plain and the
Pontic–Caspian steppe
The Pontic–Caspian Steppe is a steppe extending across Eastern Europe to Central Asia, formed by the Caspian and Pontic steppes. It stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the ''Pontus Euxinus'' of antiquity) to the northern a ...
of the
Circumboreal Region within the
Boreal Kingdom. It is home to three terrestrial ecoregions:
Central European mixed forests,
East European forest steppe
The East European forest steppe ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0419) is a patchwork of broadleaf forest stands and grasslands (steppe) that stretches 2,100 km across Eastern Europe from the Ural Mountains in Ural (region), Ural, through Volga region, Povol ...
, and
Pontic steppe.
Forests currently cover only 11% of Moldova, though the state is making efforts to increase their range. It had a 2019
Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 2.2/10, ranking it 158th globally out of 172 countries.
Game animals, such as
red deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...
,
roe deer and
wild boar
The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...
can be found in these wooded areas.

The environment of Moldova suffered extreme degradation during the Soviet period, when industrial and agricultural development proceeded without regard for environmental protection.
Excessive use of pesticides resulted in heavily polluted topsoil, and industries lacked emission controls.
Founded in 1990, the
Ecological Movement of Moldova, a national, non-governmental, nonprofit organisation which is a member of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...
has been working to restore Moldova's damaged natural environment.
The movement is national representative of the Centre "Naturopa" of the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...
and
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...
of the United Nations.
Once possessing a range from the
British Isles
The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
through Central Asia over the
Bering Strait into
Alaska
Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
and Canada's
Yukon
Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...
as well as the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...
,
saigas survived in Moldova and Romania into the late 18th century. Deforestation, demographic pressure, as well as excessive hunting eradicated the native saiga herds. They were considered a characteristic animal of
Scythia
Scythia (, ) or Scythica (, ) was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic steppe. It was inhabited by Scythians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people.
Etymology
The names ...
in antiquity. Historian
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...
referred to the saigas as the ''kolos'', describing it as "between the deer and ram in size" which (understandably but wrongly) was believed to drink through its nose.
Another animal which was extinct in Moldova since the 18th century until recently was the European Wood Bison or
wisent
The European bison (: bison) (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bi ...
. The species was reintroduced with the arrival of three European bison from
Białowieża Forest
Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more ...
in Poland several days before
Moldova's Independence Day on 27 August 2005. Moldova is currently interested in expanding their wisent population, and began talks with Belarus in 2019 regarding a bison exchange programme between the two countries.
Economy
Overview
The economy of Moldova is an
emerging upper-middle income economy, with a high
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, Education Index, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income i ...
. Since the country gained
independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...
from the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1992, it has steadily transitioned to a
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a mark ...
. According to the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
, despite a strong economic performance over the past two decades, Moldova remains among the poorest nations in Europe. Growth has remained relatively high since the 1990s, with low levels of unemployment and falling levels of poverty, but a combination of demographic factors, especially an
ageing population
Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biol ...
and significant levels of emigration, and recent regional events, especially
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have posed serious economic challenges to the Moldovan economy, particularly due to inflation and rising energy prices. Productivity growth has remained poor, and a significant proportion of the population are reliant on government pensions and social assistance. Due to Moldova's historic reliance upon Russian oil and natural gas, the energy sector has posed a particular challenge to the country's economy.
GDP per capita
This is a list of countries by nominal GDP per capita. GDP per capita is the total value of a country's finished goods and services (gross domestic product) divided by its total population (per capita).
Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is ...
has almost doubled from $2,749 (USD) in 2015 to $5,562 in 2022. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, annual GDP growth rebounded to 13.9% in 2021, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, energy and refugee crises caused growth to collapse to −5.9%. , unemployment remains low at 2.3%, but inflation had dramatically increased to 28.7% due to the energy crisis caused by the invasion. In recent years the country has received significant economic assistance from the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, IMF, and World Bank, particularly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The
IMF predicts that in 2023 the economy will improve from a 1.5% contraction to a growth of 1.5%.
Moldova remains highly vulnerable to fluctuations in
remittance
A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland.
Money sent home by migrants competes ...
s from workers abroad (which constitute 25 percent of GDP), exports to the
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...
(CIS) and
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
(EU) (88 per cent of total exports), and donor support (about 10 per cent of government spending).
The main transmission channels through which adverse exogenous shocks could impact the Moldovan economy are remittances (also due to potentially returning migrants), external trade, and capital flows.
The economy's primary exports are agriculture, apparel, and sports equipments. In 2021, Moldova exported $140 million in wine and is the 21st largest exporter of wine in the world, with wine exports being the country's fifth largest export. With its 300 days of sunshine per year, the climate in Moldova is ideal for agriculture and particularly
vineyard
A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
s. The wine industry is a major economic sector, representing three percent of Moldova's GDP and eight percent of the country's total exports, according to government data.
In 2021, the EU became the main purchaser of Moldovan wines.
Information and Communication Technology
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...
(ICT) is one of the most promising economic sectors in Moldova, accounting for more than 10 percent of GDP. More than 2,000 students graduate with a degree in computing or a related field per year. IT companies export about 80 percent of their total production to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, and
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
.
Energy
Tourism
Moldova is one of the least visited countries in Europe, and tourism consequently plays a relatively minor role in the country's overall economy. Despite the impact of
Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, Moldova saw more foreign visitors in the first quarter of 2022 than pre-
pandemic, going from 31,000 non-resident tourists in 2019 to 36,100 in 2022. This still makes it one of the least-visited countries in Europe, however in recent years a number of Western media outlets have begun to highlight Moldova and its capital city
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 ...
as an attractive tourism destination due to its picturesque natural landscapes, 300 days of sunshine per year, low prices, ancient wine culture, and mix of regional cultural influences. Tourism in Moldova has focused on the country's natural landscapes, historical sites, and historic wine tradition. The government promotes international tourism within the country through its Moldova Travel brand. Moldova is internationally connected by plane via
Chișinău International Airport, with direct flights to and from many European destinations, including
Amsterdam Schiphol,
Berlin Brandenburg,
London Stansted,
Paris–Charles de Gaulle,
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
's
Ben Gurion Airport,
Rome–Fiumicino Airport,
Istanbul Airport, and
Dubai International Airport. Rail links connect it via direct overnight trains to neighbouring
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
,
Kyiv
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
,
Odesa
Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...
, and formerly Moscow.
Moldovan citizens also enjoy visa-free travel across the
Schengen Area
The Schengen Area ( , ) encompasses European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their common borders. As an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) policy of the European Union (EU), it ...
.

As a major exporter of wine with more than 142 wineries and the largest wine cellar in the world, vineyard tours are offered to tourists across the country. Major sites include the
Cricova winery, whose wine cellar stretches more than ;
Castel Mimi, a 19th-century chateau with vineyards, a museum, art gallery, spa, hotel, and restaurant; and
Mileștii Mici, which boasts the world's largest collection of wine.
As a country with a deep history of
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
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 ...
, the country also has more than 50 monasteries and 700 churches. Among the most famous and well-visited are the
Old Orhei Cave Monastery, carved into a cliff face in the 13th century and still in use today, and the 19th century
Nativity Cathedral in the centre of Chișinău.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
includes both the Old Orhei Archaeological Landscape, which features evidence of settlements dating back to at least the 12th century, and the typical
Chernozem soil on the
Bălți Steppe of Moldova (the most arable soil on the planet) on its Tentative List of
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
s. The capital city of
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 ...
hosts most of the country's national museums, including the
National Museum of Fine Arts,
Moldova State University, Brancusi Gallery, the
National Museum of History of Moldova with over 236,000 exhibits, as well as bustling markets in the north of the city, including the house where
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
once resided while in exile from the
Russian Tsar, and which has since been turned into a museum. Every year on 3–4 October, the country celebrates National Wine Day, where wine producers open up their wineries to the general public and provide shuttle buses between locations.
Wine industry
With its 300 days of sunshine per year, the climate in Moldova is ideal for agriculture and particularly
vineyard
A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
s. The wine industry is a major economic sector, representing three percent of Moldova's GDP and eight percent of the country's total exports, according to government data. Moldovan wine is being exported into over 70 states worldwide. Although Moldova is barely larger than
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
, the country has 122,000 hectares of vineyards and is among the 20 largest producers in the world, according to a report by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV).
Before
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Moldova's pivot towards Europe, a majority of its wine exports went to Russia, but this has now changed: "Russia accounted for only 10 percent of Moldovan wine exports in 2021, down from 80 percent in the early 2000s, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (Moldova), Moldovan Ministry of Agriculture."
The EU liberalised its market for Moldovan wines and has signed a bilateral free trade deal with Moldova, with the result that in 2021 the country exported more than 120 million litres of wine to European countries, compared to 8.6 million litres to Russia.
Many families have their own recipes and grape varieties that have been passed down through the generations. There are 3 historical wine regions: Valul lui Traian (south west), Stefan Voda (south east) and Codru (wine), Codru (centre), destined for the production of wines with protected geographic indication.
Mileștii Mici is the home of the largest wine cellar in the world. It stretches for (though only is in use) and holds some two million or more bottles of wine. It has retained the Guinness World Records, Guinness World Record for largest wine cellar by number of bottles since 2005.
The earliest wines in its collection date to 1969. Mimi Castle in the south east is a winery and Cultural property, architectural monument, which was built at the end of the 19th century in the village of Bulboaca, Anenii Noi, Bulboaca in the district Anenii Noi District, Anenii Noi, and is thought to be the first winery in Bessarabia. It has since also become a tourist complex with a museum, art gallery, hotel, spa, and wine tasting rooms.
Agriculture
Moldova is an agrarian-industrial state, with agricultural land occupying 2,499,000 hectares in a total area of 3,384,600 hectares.
It is estimated that 1,810,500 of these hectares are Arable land, arable.
It is among the most arable countries in Europe, with the Chernozem soil across the
Bălți Steppe being among the most fertile soils anywhere in the world. With more than 300 days of sunshine per year supporting the cultivation of vineyards, Moldova is also one of the largest wine producers in the world. Moldova's agricultural sector benefits from a geographical proximity to large markets, especially the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
.
, agriculture made up 12% of Moldova's overall exports and 21% of overall employment. Its most exported foods are maize, wheat, sunflower seeds, grapes, apples, sugar beets, milk, potatoes, barley, plums/sloes, while relevant and important domestic industries include sugar processing, vegetable oil, food processing, and agricultural machinery. Between 2015 and 2022, agricultural production has almost doubled, particularly in vegetable and fruit production. In July 2023, a network of 20 Seed library, seed libraries comprising over 1,000 seeds were created across Moldova with the assistance of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Czech Republic), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Non-governmental organization, NGOs, and the United Nations Development Programme, with the aim is to improve local agricultural biodiversity, climate resilience, and the capacity of local government and farmers to respond effectively to changing environmental conditions.
Nevertheless, the country's agricultural sector faces serious long-term challenges. Despite having relatively modest per capita greenhouse gas emissions, and lower than the world average, Moldova is highly vulnerable to climate change and related environmental disasters which already cost the country 2.13% of annual GDP. According to Climate-KIC, run by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, "The same region in Moldova can experience intense droughts and devastating floods in the course of a few months, which is the primary concern of local people when they talk about climate. But the irregular nature of these events made it difficult to sustain long term interest from Moldovan people or to channel money from donors."
Transport infrastructure

The main means of transportation in Moldova are railways and a highway system ( overall, including of paved surfaces). Rail links connect it via direct overnight trains to neighbouring
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
,
Kyiv
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
,
Odesa
Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...
, and also Moscow.
The
Giurgiulești terminal on the
Danube
The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
is compatible with small seagoing vessels. Shipping on the lower
Prut and Nistru rivers plays only a modest role in the country's transportation system.
The sole international air gateway of Moldova is the
Chișinău International Airport. with direct flights to and from many European destinations.
Telecommunications
Internet in Moldova is among the fastest and least expensive in the world . The country ranks 3rd in the world by gigabit coverage with around 90% of the population having the option to subscribe to a Gigabit Ethernet, gigabit-speed Optical fiber, fibre-optic broadband plan.
The United Nations Development Programme has judged it to have a highly developed digital infrastructure, with 98% 4G coverage of its territory. By July 2022, there were more than 3 million internet users in Moldova, constituting some 76% of the population. Moldova is considering a bid to begin rolling out 5G in 2024, with testing beginning in 2019. Starlink launched in Moldova in August 2022.
Information and Communication Technology
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computer ...
(ICT) is one of the most promising economic sectors in Moldova, accounting for more than 10 percent of GDP. More than 2,000 Moldovan students per year graduate with a degree in Bachelor of Computing, computing or a related field.
The International Telecommunication Union, ITU's Global Cybersecurity Index ranks Moldova on the 33rd place in Europe and the 63rd place in the world. The country's joining in 2009 of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime of the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...
and adoption of the National Cyber Security Programme for 2016–2020 have established the legislative parameters for a safer digital environment. Since Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine and their campaign of Cyberwarfare by Russia, cyberwarfare against Moldova, the Moldovan government has invested significant money and resources in developing stronger cybersecurity practices and regulations with assistance from the European Union and United States. The European Union has also set up and funded the Moldova Cybersecurity Rapid Assistance Unit to improve the cyber resilience of Moldova's public sector organisations and key critical infrastructure sectors. Moldova has adopted new legislation partially drafted by the unit which will go into effect on 1 January 2025. The country has also passed legislation in order to more closely align with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR regulations, and is currently mostly compliant.
Banking
The National Bank of Moldova is responsible for the financial system and has a responsibility to the management and control of all banks in Moldova. It is accountable to the
Parliament of Moldova
The parliament of the Republic of Moldova () is the supreme representative body of the Republic of Moldova, the only state legislative authority, being a unicameral structure composed of 101 elected MPs on lists, for a period or legislature o ...
.
Demographics
The most up-to-date and reliable information is available from the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova's website which is continuously updated on a monthly and yearly basis. The most recent National Census, national census of Moldova was carried out in 2024 Moldovan census, 2024 (not including
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 ...
).
Overview
Moldova has an estimated population of approx. 2,423,300 . Moldova is relatively urbanised, with 43.4% of Moldovans living in urban areas and an urbanisation rate of 0.09%. About one-third of the Moldovan population live in the capital city
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 ...
's Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova, metropolitan area. , the country's population density is 82.8 inhabitants per 1 km
2, and average life expectancy was 71.5 years (67.2 for males, and 75.7 for females).
There are 100 women per 90 men in Moldova, and employed women have significantly higher levels of education, though women continued to earn 13.6% less than men on average.
The number of elderly people (60 years and over) per 100 inhabitants in Moldova has increased year-on-year.
The national language is Romanian language, Romanian, a Romance languages, Romance language, though approximately 15% of the Moldovan population also speak Russian .
The country has been suffering from long-term population decline due to high levels of Emigration from Moldova, emigration (in 2022, 43,000 more people left the country than came) as well as low fertility rates. According to Balkan Insight, the population has fallen by almost 33% since 1990, and by 2035 the total population may be half what it was in 1990. Since 2018, the number of deaths has exceeded the levels of live-births, though the gap has been reduced since 2021. , the average number of children per women of childbearing age was 1.69, well below the replacement rate of 2.1, as compared to 1.78 in 2019. The total number of deaths fell by 20.5% in 2022 compared to 2019. Unemployment has remained low at about 3% in 2022.
According to the 2024 Moldovan census, 2024 national census, ethnic Moldovans made up approx. 77% of the country's population, while Romanians (8%), Ukrainians (5%), Gagauz people, Gagauzians (4%), and Russians (3%) made up the most substantial ethnic minorities. Smaller populations include Bulgarians, Romania, Romani, Belarusians, Jews, and Polish people, Poles.
Language
, the only official language of Moldova is Romanian, and all references to the Moldovan language in the Constitution of Moldova, constitution and legal bills have been amended to refer to Romanian. The 2014 Moldovan census for the first time collected information about the languages spoken by residents in Moldova. There is a Controversy over ethnic and linguistic identity in Moldova, controversy about whether or not Moldovan language, Moldovan and Romanian language, Romanian should be considered distinct languages. Counting together, it is the mother tongue of 80.4% of the population. The Moldovan government rejects any distinction, however the census allowed for respondents to respond with their preferred label. The results of the 2024 census were Moldovan language, Moldovan (49.2%), Romanian language, Romanian (31.3%), Russian language, Russian (11.1%), Gagauz language, Gagauz (3.8%), Ukrainian language, Ukrainian (2.9%), Bulgarian language, Bulgarian (1.2%), Romani language, Romani (0.3), and others (0.2%).
Diaspora and emigration
Emigration is a mass phenomenon in Moldova and has a major impact on the country's demographics and economy. It is estimated that more than between 1.2 and 2 million Moldovan citizens (over 25% of the population) are living and working abroad. The Moldovan economy is still heavily reliant on their remittance payments. Moldovans are found across the Balkans, Balkan region, Western Europe, and North America. Among the most notable Moldovan diaspora populations are: 285,000 in
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
(2020), 258,600 in
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
(2002) 156,400 in Russia (2010), 188,923 in Italy (2019), 122,000 in Germany (2022), 26,300 in France (2019), and 20,470 in Canada (2021).
Current trends indicate that the population of Moldova will continue to fall with emigration remaining both chronic and higher than immigration or natural birth rates. In 2020, net emigration fell to a low of 7,000 , but by 2022, 43,000 more people left the country than came, though this is slightly down from net emigration of 45,000 in 2021.
Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine and the economic impact on Moldova may have been a key contributing factor in the rise from 2020 to 2022. However, there are indications that the invasion of Ukraine and the country's moves towards Accession of Moldova to the European Union, accession to the European Union may have led to a rise in the number of Moldovan emigrants returning to their country of birth, seeking to help the country join the EU. The Moldovan diaspora also had significant influence on recent Moldovan elections, voting overwhelmingly for
Maia Sandu as president in 2020 Moldovan presidential election, 2020 and for her
Party of Action and Solidarity in the 2021 Moldovan parliamentary election, 2021 parliamentary election.
Religion
Moldova's constitution provides for freedom of religion and complete separation of church and state, though the constitution cites the "exceptional importance" of
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
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 ...
.
Religious discrimination, Discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation is illegal, and Hate speech, incitement to religious and ethnic hatred was made illegal in May 2022.
Religion in Moldova is dominated by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity. According to the 2014 Moldovan census, 90% of the country reported to be of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith. Of this number, approx. 80–90% of Orthodox Moldovans belong to the Moldovan Orthodox Church (formally known as Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova) which is subordinate to the
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
, and has played a powerful role in deepening Russia's influence in Moldova.
The remaining 10–20% of Orthodox Moldovans belong to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which is subordinate to the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Of the non-Orthodox population of Moldova, the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
estimates that , approx. 7% identify with no religion; Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Pentecostalism, Pentecostals number between 15,000 and 30,000 each; the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova organisation estimates the Jewish population to be approx. 20,000; and the Islamic League of Moldova (an NGO recognised by the Ministry of Justice (Moldova), Moldovan Ministry of Justice in 2011 as representing Islam in Moldova, Moldovan Muslims) estimates the number of Muslims to be approx. 15,000–17,000.
There are six List of synagogues in Moldova, synagogues in Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova, Chișinău, one in Orhei, one in Soroca, and one in
Tiraspol, and one mosque in Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova, Chișinău. The remaining less than 5% of the Moldovan population are Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventists, Evangelicalism, Evangelical Christians, Catholic Church, Roman Catholics, Lutheranism, Lutherans, and Atheism, atheists.
The Government of Transnistria, Transnistrian authorities estimate that 80% of the population belong to the Moldovan Orthodox Church.
Health and fertility
Moldova provides Universal health care, universal healthcare through a
mandatory health insurance scheme. According to the most recent 2022 official data, per 10,000 inhabitants there are 48.4 doctors and 91 units of average medical staff.
Approx. 53% of those aged 16 and over in urban areas described their own health as 'good' or 'very good', compared to approx. 33% of people of the same age in rural areas.
The country has 86 hospitals, 1,524 Pharmacy (shop), pharmacies and branches, 12,600 physicians, 23,687 paramedical personnel, and 17,293 hospital beds. Moldova spends 6% of its annual GDP on health care, up from 4.9% in 2019.
As of 2022 the average life expectancy was 71.5 years (67.2 for males, and 75.7 for females), slightly lower than comparable countries such as Albania, Bulgaria,
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
, and Ukraine. The number of elderly people (aged 60 years and over) per 100 inhabitants in Moldova has increased year-on-year. The total fertility rate per woman in 2022 was 1.69, a fall from 1.78 in 2019, and below the replacement rate of 2.1. There were 10.6 Live birth rate, live births per 1,000 inhabitants in 2022, a drop from 12.2 in 2019, and 14.2 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants, an increase from 13.7 in 2019 but a significant fall from 17.5 in 2019. Infant mortality per 1,000 live-births was 9.0, a slight increase on 8.7 in 2020.
The overall number of deaths in 2022 fell by 20.5% compared to 2021.
According to the National Agency for Public Health, the major causes of death in 2022 were Cardiovascular disease, diseases of the circulatory system (58%), cancerous tumours (15.8%), Gastrointestinal disease, diseases of the digestive tract (7.5%), external causes (4.8%), and other causes (13.9%).
More specifically, the leading causes of death in 2019 were Coronary artery disease, Ischaemic heart disease, strokes, hypertensive heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, and trachea, bronchus, and lung cancers.
On 19 December 2016, the Moldovan parliament approved raising the retirement age to 63 years from the current level of 57 for women and 62 for men, a reform that is part of a 3-year-old assistance programme agreed with the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...
. The retirement age will be lifted gradually by a few months every year until it is fully in effect in 2028.
Education
As of the academic year 2022/23, Moldova had 1,218 primary and secondary schools, 90 vocational schools, and 21 higher education institutions, as well as 12 Private university, private higher education institutions.
There were a total of 437,000 pupils and students. ,
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
allocates 5,000 scholarships in high schools and universities for Moldovan students. Likewise, more than half of preschool children in Moldova benefit from Romania funded programme to renovate and equip kindergartens. Almost all the population is literate: the literacy rate of the population aged 15 and over is estimated at 99.6%.

The main higher education institutions in Moldova are the
Moldova State University (est. 1946) and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova (est. 1961), both of which are located in
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 Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (est. 1991) has featured on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and has educated a number of national leaders including current President of Moldova
Maia Sandu and leader of the opposition Igor Dodon. Other important universities include the Ion Creangă State Pedagogical University of Chișinău (est. 1940), Nicolae Testemițanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy (est. 1945), and the Technical University of Moldova (est. 1964). Women account for 59.1% of students in higher education, and 70.1% of all foreign students in Postgraduate education, doctoral programmes in Moldova. 32.3% of employed women in Moldova have received higher education, compared to 24.5% of men, and 16.9% specialised secondary education compared to 11.3% of men.
Regional differences and tensions

Since independence, Moldova characterised by a substantial range of profound regional differences across its internationally recognised territory. Since
independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...
, the country has struggled with issues of national identity, geopolitical strategy, and alliances, often torn between
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
and the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
to the west and the Russian Federation to the east. Most notably, in eastern Moldova is the unrecognised breakaway state of
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 ...
, which lies on the eastern bank of the
Dniester
The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...
river and borders
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, which has pursued close diplomatic, military, and economic ties with Russia Transnistria War, since 1992, with more than a thousand Russian soldiers stationed in the region. This has proved particularly difficult following
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as Transnistria's position on Ukraine's south-western flank and its hosting of more than a thousand Russian soldiers poses a potential threat to Ukraine's war efforts. The European Union's
Josep Borrell has confirmed that the pathway to accession does not depend upon a resolution of the
Transnistria conflict.
There is further the issue of the autonomous territorial unit of
Gagauzia. The Gagauz people are a Turkic languages, Turkic-speaking people spread between southern Moldova and the south-west of Ukraine. While their exact origin is considered obscure, they have a strong sense of ethnic identity distinct from that of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine, with a Gagauz language, distinctive language and cultural traditions. They are nevertheless a heavily Russification, Russified group.
Support for integration with Romania and the European Union is substantially lower among Gagauzians than among the broader Moldovan population. In 2014, shortly before the Republic of Moldova signed its EU Association Agreement, nearly 99 per cent of Gagauzians voted in a referendum "to reject closer links with Europe in favour of joining the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union."
In 2015, "just over half of Gagauzians voted for the Russian-backed socialist candidate Irina Vlah, Irina Vlakh as governor."
Gagauzia continues to represent a serious challenge both to Moldova's territorial sovereignty and political stability due to Russia's systemic involvement in the region, especially by backing pro-Russian local parties and leadership candidates.
The European Centre for Minority Issues has also highlighted the role of supposedly-neutral NGO groups in Gagauzia as a new front in Russia's Hybrid warfare, hybrid-war against both Moldova and Ukraine.
The region's current local leader, Evghenia Guțul, in July 2023 thanked the fugitive Moldovan Oligarchy, oligarch Ilan Shor, leader of the outlawed Moldovan pro-Russian opposition Șor Party, for his personal and financial support and his "willingness to do what it takes so that we may fulfil our election promises", and expressed a desire for deeper diplomatic ties with Russia.
There is also Controversy over ethnic and linguistic identity in Moldova, substantial controversy over ethnic and linguistic identity in Moldova concerning whether the Moldovan language and Moldovans, Moldovan people constitute separate linguistic and ethnic groups to the Romanian language and Romanian people. The possibility of the
unification of Moldova and Romania has remained a popular topic in both countries since Moldova's independence in 1991. Romania and Moldova enjoy exceptionally strong Moldova–Romania relations, diplomatic relations. Romania supports Moldova's rapid accession to the European Union, provides vast economic assistance to Moldova's struggling economy, and provided up to 90% of Moldova's energy needs via discounted capped prices as Moldova sought to reduce its reliance on Russian oil and natural gas. Relations have strengthened further since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Up to 74% of the Romanian public and more than 40% of the Moldovan public would support Moldova being integrated into Romania in one form or another, though most in either country believe that 'now is not the right time'. A 2022 survey during the Russian invasion of Ukraine indicated that only 11% of Romania's population supports an immediate union, while over 42% think it is not the moment.
Culture
Moldova's cultural tradition has been influenced primarily by the Origin of the Romanians, Romanian origins of its majority population, the roots of which go back to the second century AD, the period of Ancient Rome, Roman colonisation in Dacia.
Located geographically at the crossroads of Italic peoples, Latin, Slavic people, Slavic and other cultures, Moldova has enriched its own culture adopting and maintaining traditions of neighbouring regions and of other influential sources. The largest ethnic group, which had come to identify itself widely as "Moldovan" by the 14th century, played a significant role in the shaping of Culture of Romania#Classical age, classical Romanian culture. The culture has been also influenced by the Byzantine culture, the neighbouring Magyar and Slavic populations, and later by the Ottoman Turks. A strong Western European influence in Moldovan literature and arts was prevalent in the 19th century. During the periods 1812–1917 and 1944–89, Moldovans were influenced by Russian and Soviet administrative control as well and by ethnic Russian immigration.
The country's cultural heritage was marked by numerous churches and monasteries built by the Moldavian ruler
Stephen the Great
Stephen III, better known as Stephen the Great (; ; died 2 July 1504), was List of rulers of Moldavia, Voivode (or Prince) of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son of and co-ruler with Bogdan II of Moldavia, Bogdan II, who was murdered in ...
in the 15th century, by the works of the later renaissance Metropolitans Varlaam, Metropolitan of Moscow, Varlaam and Dosoftei, and those of scholars such as
Grigore Ureche
Grigore Ureche (; 1590–1647) was a Moldavian chronicler who wrote on Moldavian history in his ''Letopisețul Țării Moldovei'' ('' Chronicles of the Land of Moldavia''), covering the period from 1359 to 1594.
Biography
Grigore Ureche was th ...
, Miron Costin, Nicolae Milescu,
Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie or Demetrius; Cantemir (; ; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known by other spellings, was a Moldavian prince, statesman, and man of letters. He twice served as voivode of Moldavia (March–April 1693 and 1710–1711). Durin ...
and Ion Neculce. In the 19th century, Moldavians from the territories of the medieval Principality of Moldavia, divided into
Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Western Moldavia (after 1859, Romania), made a significant contribution to the formation of the modern Romanian culture. Among these were many Bessarabians, such as Alecu Donici, Alexandru Donici, Alexandru Hâjdeu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Constantin Stamati, Constantin Stamati-Ciurea, Costache Negruzzi, Alecu Russo, Constantin Stere.
Mihai Eminescu, a late Romanticism, Romantic poet, and Ion Creangă, a writer, are the most influential Romanian language artists, considered national writers both in Romania and Moldova.
Cuisine
Moldova's fertile soil (''chernozem'') produces plentiful grapes, fruits, vegetables, Food grain, grains, meat, and milk products, all of which have found their uses in the national cuisine. The fertile black soil combined with the use of traditional agricultural methods permits the growth of a wide range of foods in Moldova. Moldovan cuisine is similar to neighbouring Romanian cuisine, Romania,
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, and
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, and the regions share many traditional dishes, often with regional variations. Moldovan cuisine has historically been particularly influenced by elements of Russian cuisine, Russian, Turkish cuisine, Turkish, and Ukrainian cuisine. Main dishes often include beef, pork, potatoes, cabbage, and a variety of cereals. Popular alcoholic beverages are ''Moldovan wine#Divin, divin'' (Moldovan brandy), beer, and Moldovan wine, wine—for which the country is known due to its high-quality offerings.
There are several traditional Moldovan dishes. Plăcintă, Plăcinte are stuffed and deep-fried pastries with fillings such as soft cheese (often Urdă), cabbage, potatoes, apples, sour cherries and others, both sweet and savoury. Sarma (food), Sarmale is a typical Moldovan dish usually consisting of cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, peppers, carrots, meat, and baked in oil. Regional variations can also be found in other former parts of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
. Mămăligă, a kind of porridge made from yellow maize flour, is another staple. It is popular in other countries as polenta and is often served with Sheep milk cheese, sheep's cheese and sour cream. Another traditional dish, plachyndy, is a kind of flatbread often made with kefir or buttermilk, wrapped around herbs, and pan-fried in oil. Zeamă is a thin chicken soup, typically consisting of homemade chicken broth prepared with a smaller whole chicken, water, thin homemade egg noodles (tăiței de casă), and a variety of finely chopped vegetables and herbs. Bryndza, Brynza is a Soft cheese, soft Sheep milk cheese, sheep/goat cheese with a crumbly texture and tangy taste, mostly produced and popular in Slovakia, Romania, and Moldova, and often used in salads, pies, and dumplings.
Borscht, a sour Eastern European soup made from beetroots, meat stock, and vegetables, is also popular and commonly served in Moldova. As with other parts of the region, pierogi (known as ''chiroște'' in Moldova) are another traditional staple and are often stuffed with a soft cheese in Moldova. The dough is made with wheat flour and is boiled in salted water, pan-fried in oil, or baked in the oven. Medovik, a cake of Russian origin (and called Tort Smetanik in Moldova) is a popular layered cake with honey and Smetana (dairy product), smetana (sour cream) or condensed milk.
Total recorded adult alcohol consumption is approximately evenly split between spirits, beer, and wine. Notably, Moldova has among the highest alcohol consumption per capita in world, at of pure alcohol imbibed in 2016. This has fallen somewhat in recent years, but it remains a serious ongoing health concern.
Holidays
Most retail businesses close on New Year's Day and Independence Day of the Republic of Moldova, Independence Day, but remain open on all other holidays. Christmas is celebrated either on 7 January, the traditional date in Old Calendarists Eastern Orthodox Churches, or on 25 December, with both dates being recognised as public holidays.
On 1 March features ''mărțișor'' gifting, which is a tradition that females are gifted with a type of talisman that is given for good luck.
Music

Among Moldova's most prominent composers are Gavriil Musicescu, Ștefan Neaga and Eugen Doga.
In the field of pop music, Moldova has produced the band O-Zone, who came to prominence in 2003, with their hit song "Dragostea Din Tei", which topped multiple notable single charts. Moldova has been participating in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2005. Another popular band from Moldova is Zdob și Zdub that represented the country in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing sixth, also in 2021, with a similar result.
In May 2007, Natalia Barbu represented Moldova in Helsinki at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with her entry "Fight (Natalia Barbu song), Fight". Natalia squeezed into the final by a very small margin. She took tenth place with 109 points.
Then Zdob și Zdub again represented Moldova in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest finishing 12th.
The band SunStroke Project with Olia Tira represented the country in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest with their hit song "Run Away (SunStroke Project and Olia Tira song), Run Away". Their performance gained international notoriety as an internet meme due to the pelvic thrusting and dancing of Sergey Stepanov, the band saxophonist. He has been dubbed "Epic Sax Guy". SunStroke Project featured again in the 2017 Eurovision entry "Hey Mama" which got third place.
In 2015 a new musical project by the name of Carla's Dreams has risen in popularity around Moldova. Carla's Dreams reached the top charts in multiple countries in Europe with the release of their song "Sub Pielea Mea" in 2016. The song received a lot of airplay and reached number one place on the charts in Moldova as well as Russia. The group is still active and released their latest album in 2017. The theme of the musical group is "Anonymous" as they perform with painted faces, hoodies and sunglasses. The identity of the group members is still unknown.
Among most prominent classical musicians in Moldova are Maria Bieșu, one of the leading world's sopranos and the winner of the Japan International Competition; pianist Mark Zeltser, winner of the USSR National Competition, Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris and Busoni Competition in Bolzano, Italy.
Media
The right to freedom of speech and right to information are guaranteed by the Moldovan constitution.
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
improved Moldova's
Press Freedom Index ranking to 28th in 2023 from 89th in 2020, partly due to government legal reforms which made it easier for journalists to access official information. However, they cautioned that "Moldova's media are diverse but extremely polarised, like the country itself, which is marked by political instability and excessive influence by oligarchs." Moldova's media are divided into pro-Russian and pro-Western camps and on party political lines.
Oligarchs and political leaders strongly influence their editorial stances.
Television remains the most popular and trusted medium, while online social media is exerting increasing influence. Most private FM broadcasting, FM radio networks rebroadcast output from Russian and Romanian stations.
The first Public broadcasting, publicly funded national radio broadcaster, Radio Moldova, has been broadcasting since 1939 from the capital city, Chişinău. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is also widely available. Moldova's state-owned national radio-TV broadcaster is Teleradio-Moldova (TRM), which broadcasts the TV channel Moldova 1.
There were 3 million internet users by July 2022, approximately 76% of the population, and digital infrastructure is well-developed, with 98% 4G coverage of territory. There are a number of daily and weekly newspapers published in Moldova, among the most popular being ''Timpul de dimineață'' and ''Moldova Suverană,'' but print media has an overall small audience in Moldova''.'' Independent media are struggling to ensure financial sustainability in the face of diminishing advertisement revenues due to inflation, economic stagnation and uncertainty caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In 2022, the government removed the broadcasting licenses from six television stations for broadcasting Propaganda in Russia, pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation about
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in violation of the country's Audiovisual Services Code. The government stated that this was done in order to "prevent the risk of disinformation or attempts to manipulate public opinion". All six were either owned or affiliated with Ilan Shor, Ilan Șhor, a fugitive pro-Russian politician and businessman who fled to Israel in 2019 after being convicted of fraud and money-laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison ''in absentia''. In October 2023 Orizont TV, ITV, Prime, Publika TV, Canal 2 and Canal 3 were also banned for undermining the local elections as well as blocking a number of Russian media outlets which includes the news agencies TASS and Interfax.
The cinema of Moldova developed in the 1960s during the Soviet period, nurturing a small but lively film industry.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Moldova's independence, the country's economic stagnation and poverty has hampered the Moldovan film industry.
Nevertheless, some films have seen some international success. Perhaps best-known are ''Lăutarii'' (1972), written and directed by Moldovan film-maker Emil Loteanu, and ''Wedding in Bessarabia'' (2009), which was co-produced by Romania, Moldova, and Luxembourg. In recent years Moldovan cinema has gained greater international attention. ''Carbon'' (2022), directed by Ion Borş, received positive acclaim by magazines such as Variety. It was the winner of the Transilvania International Film Festival's Audience Award. For the 37th edition of the Fribourg International Film Festival, Moldova was featured in its 'New Territory' section, which celebrates little-known film-making cultures. In July 2022, the United Nations Development Programme announced that it would be using state-of-the-art equipment to transfer more than 1,600 films from the Moldova-Film archive for posterity and cultural preservation. The United States assisted by equipping in 2021 a digitization, digitisation laboratory to restore and preserve its archive feature and documentary films, representing an important part of Moldova's historical, cultural, and artistic heritage, and many of the films were broadcast on national TV with Romanian subtitles.
Sports
Association football is the most popular team sport in Moldova. The governing body is the Moldovan Football Federation, which belongs to UEFA. The Moldova national football team played its first match in 1994, but never qualified to the UEFA European Championship. The most successful football club is FC Sheriff Tiraspol, Sheriff Tiraspol, the first and only Moldovan club to qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, Champions League and the UEFA Europa League, Europa League. Other winners of the Moldovan National Division include FC Zimbru Chișinău, Zimbru Chișinău, FC Dacia Chișinău, Dacia Chișinău, FC Tiraspol and FC Milsami Orhei, Milsami Orhei.
''Trîntă'' (a form of wrestling) is the national sport in Moldova. Rugby union is popular as well. More than 10,000 supporters turn out for home internationals. Since 2004, playing numbers at all levels have more than doubled to 3,200. Despite the hardships and deprivations the national team are ranked 34th in the world.
The most prestigious cycling race is the Moldova President's Cup, which was first run in 2004. In chess, the Republic of Moldova has several international masters, among which can be mentioned Viorel Iordăchescu, Dmitry Svetushkin, and Victor Bologan, Viorel Bologan.
Radu Albot is one of the most successful Moldovan tennis players, with Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP singles (2019 Delray Beach Open – Singles, 2019 Delray Beach Open) and doubles (2015 Istanbul Open – Doubles, 2015 Istanbul Open) titles.
Athletes from Moldova have won European medals in track and field, athletics, biathlon, association football, football, and gymnastics; world medals in archery, judo, swimming, and taekwondo; as well as Olympic medals in boxing, canoeing, shooting sports, shooting, Olympic weightlifting, weightlifting, and amateur wrestling, wrestling. Moldova made its Olympic debut at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Olympic medalists include Sergei Mureiko, Oleg Moldovan, Vitalie Grușac, Veaceslav Gojan, and Serghei Tarnovschi. Nicolae Juravschi represented the Soviet Union at the 1988 Summer Olympics, 1988 Seoul Games, winning two medals.
See also
* Outline of Moldova
Notes
References
External links
S.Res.148 – A resolution to express the sense of the Senate that the United States should support the right to self-determination of the people of the Republic of Moldavia and northern Bucovina
*
Moldova. ''The World Factbook''. Central Intelligence Agency.
Moldova, Republic offrom ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''.
Moldova profile from the BBC News.
*
*
Key Development Forecasts for Moldova from International Futures.
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