Sociologist Doru Petruti, manager of the Institute of Marketing and Surveys IMAS-INC Chisinau, says that until an audit is performed, the reliability of the 2014 census results is limited or even null, IPN reports.
Petruti writes on his blog that the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS) reported a population of 2,913,281 people, 699,849 of whom are aged 0-17, which leaves 2,213,432 citizens aged 18 or older. However, the number of voters included by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on the electoral lists for the recent ballot, that is persons above 18 years of age, is 2,800,827. Petruti points out the big difference between the two official figures.
According to the preliminary results of thee 014 census, the share of rural population has grown to 65.8%. “As a sociologist, I cannot but wonder why are urban areas affected by migration? Why do people leave from places that have jobs and wages? Considering the results of the poll, I have one more question: do the BNS data reflect the real situation or merely the higher capacity of gathering data in rural areas as compared to the difficulties encountered in cities?”, asks Doru Petruti.
According to the preliminary data of the census, the Moldovan population dropped below 3 million to 2,913,281 persons, including 329,108 (11.29%) in external migration. 48.41% are men and 51.58% are women. 995,227 (34.2%) Moldovans live in cities and towns and 1,918,054 (65.8%) live in rural areas.
The preliminary results of the census have been published by BNS on December 31.
