Census 2024 // Republic of Moldova - increasingly aging society
The population is decreasing, cities are growing, and more and more citizens are declaring themselves Romanian speakers. Official data shows that the Republic of Moldova has lost approximately 400 thousand inhabitants in the last decade and reached 2.4 million. Also, urbanization has increased significantly, and the demographic structure reflects an increasingly aging society. The National Bureau of Statistics presented on Thursday the preliminary data of the Housing and Population Census conducted in 2024.
Thus, of the total population, 47.1% are men and 52.9% are women. Also, more and more Moldovans are choosing to live in the city: 46.4% of the population lives in urban areas, compared to 39.4% in 2014, which shows a 7% increase in urbanization.
In terms of ethnic structure, 77.2% declared themselves Moldovans, 7.9% Romanians, 4.9% Ukrainians, 4.2% Gagauz, 3.2% - Russians, 1.6% - Bulgarians, 0.4% - Roma, and 0.5% cited another ethnicity.
The census also shows a notable change in the language spoken by Moldovan citizens. The number of those who claim to speak Romanian is increasing, reaching 33.2%, while the percentage of those who declare they speak "Moldovan" has decreased to 46%. Other languages spoken are Russian (15.3%), Gagauz (2.3%) and Ukrainian (2%).
In terms of religion, 95% of Moldovans declare themselves Orthodox, while other denominations have a smaller share: Baptists – 1.1%, Jehovah's Witnesses – 0.7%, and the rest of the population identifies as Pentecostals, Adventists, Evangelical Christians, Old Believers (Old Rite Orthodox), Muslims, Roman Catholics and other religions. Also, 0.6% of respondents declared themselves atheists, and 0.8% said they had no religion.
Also, the data show that the absolute majority of the population (95.9%) was born in the Republic of Moldova, while 4.1% of respondents declared that they were born in other countries.
The population and housing census was conducted between April 8 and July 7, 2024, and citizens answered three questionnaires.
the questionnaire for the census of the person - 62 questions;
the questionnaire for the census of the dwelling - 28 questions;
the questionnaire for the collective living space - 22 questions.
