Moldova Country Overview
Where is Moldova located? The landlocked country of Moldova, also known as Moldova, is located in south-eastern Europe. The official language is Romanian, but other languages such as Russian or Ukrainian can also be found in Moldova. On the time zone map, Moldova is assigned to the “Eastern European Time” (EET) time zone. Therefore, the time difference to the coordinated world time is 2 hours (UTC+2). In the summer months (end of March to the end of October) the time is changed to daylight saving time. Then the difference to the world clock is 3 hours.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Moldova is 3,364,496, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 3,364,496 |
| Population growth rate | -1.08% |
| Birth rate | 11.50 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall | 69.82 years |
| Men | 65.95 years |
| Women | 73.94 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 18.29% |
| 15-64 years | 68.63% |
| 65 years and above | 13.08% |
| Median age | 36.00 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.94 |
| Population density | 99.39 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 46.00% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 75.8% Moldovans, 8.4% Ukrainians, 5.9% Russians, 4.4% Gagauz, 2.2% Roma, 1.9% Bulgarians; (without Transnistria) | |
| Religions | |
| Orthodox 98.5%, Jews 1.5%, Baptists and others 0.5% (2000) | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.711 |
| HDI ranking | 107th out of 194 |
People in Moldova
Moldova has 3.5 million residents. The number has been falling for years. Each woman has an average of 1.2 children.
Around 57 percent of the population live in the country, 43 percent in a city. The largest cities are Chișinău, Tiraspol (which, however, is in Transnistria) and Bălṭi (also Belz in German).
90 percent of the population belong to an Orthodox church. Moldova has a long Christian tradition.
69 percent of the population are Moldovans. You are one of the Romanians. Ukrainians make up 11 percent and Russians 10 percent. The next largest group are the Gagauz, a Turkic-speaking people, with 4.9 percent. They live in the Gagauzia region in the south-west of the country. Bulgarians, Jews, Germans and Poles are other small minorities.
However, the distribution in the country is different. In Transnistria, only 32 percent Moldovans live, but 30 percent Russians and 29 percent Ukrainians. This is also the reason for the Transnistria conflict.
Languages in Moldova
The official language in Moldova is Romanian. Speak a Moldavian dialect of Romanian, the Moldovan. The differences to Romanian are small. On August 31, 1989, Romanian was reintroduced as the official language. This is celebrated annually at the “Limba Noastră cea Română”, which means: Our language, the Romanian.
Since 1991 it has been written in Latin letters again. Previously, with the incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1930, the use of the Cyrillic script had become mandatory. In the breakaway parts in the east of the country, in Transnistria, the Cyrillic script is still used.
Because Russian was the official language for decades, it is still widely used in everyday life. Most of the population understand Russian, for 16 percent of the population it is even their mother tongue.