More than 347,000 residents of the Transnistrian region and of the municipality of Bender were included in the State Population Register and 338,000 of them hold Moldovan nationality. Also, 313,000 of them possess passports of the citizen of the Republic of Moldova, while 281,000 have identity cards, according to records from the databases managed by the Public Services Agency, IPN reports.
During the past ten years, the highest annual figure of applicants for biometric passports from among inhabitants of the Transnistrian region was recorded in 2018 (37,500), while for identity cards – in 2019 (20,300). In 2020, as a result of the travel restrictions imposed by Tiraspol, the number of applicants decreased significantly, to 17,300 applicants for passports and to 9,600 applicants for identity cards.
Following the simplification of the procedure for obtaining the nationality of the Republic of Moldova by recognition, applying to persons born on the country’s territory who are younger than 18 (legislative amendments in force since April 19, 2018), 24,055 persons were recognized as citizens of the Republic of Moldova until November 30, 2021. Of these, about 68% live in the Transnistrian region and in the municipality of Bender.
