People of Moldova

Ethnic groups

About three-fourths of Moldova’s population consists of ethnic Moldovans. There are smaller populations of Ukrainians, Russians, Gagauz, Roma (Gypsies), and Bulgarians. The Ukrainian population of Moldova, the largest minority group, is divided between those who are native to the country (their ancestors having farmed for centuries in what is now Moldova) and those who migrated to Moldova during the periods of Russian and Soviet control. The former group makes up the majority of Ukrainians in Moldova.

Moldova’s Russian population arrived during the periods of Russian imperial and Soviet rule, usually as civil servants and labourers. The Gagauz, a mainly rural people, have lived on the Bugeac Plain since the late 18th century. The country’s ethnic Bulgarians also are mainly rural and inhabit the southern districts, where they settled at the end of the 18th century. Only a small percentage of Moldovan citizens identify themselves as Roma.

Languages

Moldovan is designated as the country’s official language in the constitution. During the Russian imperial and Soviet periods, the Moldavian language (as it was then called) was written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Soviet scholars, mainly for political reasons, insisted that this language was an independent Romance language that was distinct from Daco-Romanian (see Romanian). In fact, Daco-Romanian and Moldovan are virtually identical, and differences between the two are confined to phonetics and vocabulary. In 1989 the script of the Moldovan language was changed to the Latin alphabet; thereupon began a heated debate over whether the language should be called Romanian or Moldovan. By the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, there was general agreement from both sides that Moldovan and Romanian were in fact the same language. Nevertheless, Moldovan pride in the Moldovan language is reflected in the country’s national anthem, “Limba Noastra” (“Our Language”), and the national motto, Limba Noastra-i o Comoara (“Our Language is a Treasure”).

Some of Moldova’s ethnic communities have preserved their respective languages, but not without accommodations brought about by urbanization. Those who have been drawn to the cities, especially ethnic Moldovans, often have accepted Russian as a second language. Few, however, have abandoned their native language, and bilingualism has become the norm. The Moldovan state acknowledges and protects the right to preserve, develop, and use Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, and any other languages spoken within the country’s borders. Gagauz is the official language in the autonomous area of Gagauz, but Moldovan, Romanian, and Russian are spoken there as well. Although the Gagauz language is Turkic in origin, it was traditionally written with the Cyrillic alphabet; however, since 1989 the Gagauz have developed a Latin script.

Religion

During the period of Soviet rule, the influence of churches in Moldovan public life was limited by the religious policy imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU): separation of church and state, exclusion of the churches from education, and subjection of the faithful to atheistic propaganda. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, all churches have undergone a revival and have striven to regain their former prominence. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Moldovans, Russians, Gagauz, and Ukrainians are Eastern Orthodox Christians. There are also other Christians and smaller Muslim and Jewish communities. The Jewish community is overwhelmingly urban and began to enter present-day Moldova in substantial numbers after 1800, but its numbers have been greatly reduced by wars, pogroms, the Holocaust, and emigration (since the creation of the Moldovan republic, there has been considerable emigration of Jews to Russia, Ukraine, and Israel). Less than one-tenth of Moldova’s residents consider themselves nonreligious.

Settlement patterns

Economic policies imposed during the Soviet era brought significant changes to both the countryside and cities. The pace of urbanization was dramatic, in part because Moldova was the least urban of all the Soviet republics. Industrialization spurred the growth of large and small cities in every part of the republic, but nowhere more so than in the capital, Chișinău, the economic, administrative, and cultural centre of the republic. The collectivization of agriculture during the Soviet period concentrated population in large villages, most of which have between 1,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. As villages assumed new economic and administrative functions, they became more modern in level of comfort and in the public services they could provide.

After independence the population of Moldova became even more urban as the movement from the countryside to the cities became continuous. At that time ethnic Moldovans were relative newcomers to the cities, and in the early 21st century they accounted for only about one-third of all urban inhabitants. The majority of the remainder of ethnic Moldovans reside in the rural areas in the centre and north of the republic. A majority of the Ukrainian population lives in urban centres, with approximately one-fourth of them living in the eastern section of the breakaway region of Moldova known as Transdniestria (Transnistria; Pridnestrovie), which is located on the east bank of the Dniester River. Russians constitute about one-fourth of Moldova’s urban population, but thousands of them have resettled in Transdniestria.

Demographic trends

During the 1960s the population of the republic grew rapidly; however, starting in 1970 it increased at a steady but slower rate. Since independence, though, Moldova’s population has decreased, largely owing to the emigration of Moldovans seeking economic opportunities elsewhere and to the virtual end of immigration from Russia and Ukraine, which had contributed to earlier population growth. Moreover, a sharp decline in the standard of living and in the quality and availability of public health and medical facilities in the early 1990s lowered life expectancy. Infant mortality and insufficient health care, especially in rural areas, were serious problems. The number of stillbirths and infant deaths, which had fallen significantly from the early 1970s to the early 1980s, rose in the late 1980s and remained high throughout the early 2000s. In the early 21st century Moldova’s birth rate remained low compared with the world average.