[Upd.] {Corrects to "by six villages" in the title} The population of Moldova decreased by 8,000 on average a year during the last ten years. This is the equivalent of six villages with a population of about 1,300. The United Nations Population Fund warns that the demographic policy and problems must be a priority for the new government, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique from the UNFPA. According to UN forecasts, confirmed by studies of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Moldova's population would decline by 1 million by 2050 and would halve to 1.5 million by 2130, as the Vienna Institute of Demography predicted. There are many causes for such a situation. On the one hand, the fertility is low. The women give birth to fewer children as the devote more time to work. At the same time, there is no well-established nursery infrastructure. A woman now gives birth to 1-2 children on average. This is twice less than needed, at least for replacing the generations in time. Such a situation impacts first of all the education system, where the school contingent during 2007-2008 fell by 27% on 2000-2001. In other words, the schools in Moldova lost each third student. On the other hand, the death rate is high, especially among able-bodied persons. This is due to the precarious living conditions, stress, reduced access to medical services of a high quality and to road accidents and accidents at work. The low birth rate and the rising mortality rate determine another unfavorable demographic phenomenon – aging. The forecasts say each third person in Moldova will be over 65 in 2050, i.e. will be of retirement age. “We already face shortages of workforce. The lack of qualified personnel in several years will become more acute. This means that we will have fewer working grownups who will have to maintain a larger number of economically inactive persons – children and elderly people. The latter will be larger in number and will account for the largest part of the benefits,” said Boris Galca, UNFPA Program Coordinator in Moldova. Despite acute demographic problems, Moldova remains the only country in Europe that does not have a Center for Demographic Studies that would conduct studies and scientific researches and would contribute to the formulation of policies, first of all economic. Moldova does not have lecturers and university programs for training specialists in demography. The Economy Ministry's National Commission for Population and Development is the only institution that analyzes and coordinates the demographic policy.