The number of people with habitual residence in the Republic of Moldova decreased by 13.9% in 10 years. Thus, almost 400,000 people disappeared from Moldova during this period. These are the preliminary data of the 2024 Census, presented on Thursday. Figures show that in 2024, there were about 2.401 million people in Moldova, as opposed to almost 2.790 million in 2014, IPN reports.
Census data show that the proportion of the urban population increased from 38.5% to 46.4%. Chisinau is the most popular city as every third person with habitual residence in the country lives in the municipality of Chisinau.
The number of people aged 65+ increased to 18.2%, confirming the aging of the population. The 15-24 age segment declined drastically from 14.7% to 10.6%.
Children up to 14 years old represent 19.2% of the population, up from 17.9% in 2014. The active 25-64 age category decreased from 56.1% or 1.56 million to 52% or 1.24 million. The female population remained predominant.
Some 46% of those surveyed said that their mother tongue is Moldovan, 33.3% mentioned Romanian, 15.3% - Russian, 2.3% - Gagauz and 2% - Ukrainian.
According to preliminary census data, 95% of the Moldovan citizens said they are Orthodox Christians. The other religions represent about 1% or even less. The figures are close to those of 2014.
As for ethnicity, 77.2% of those questioned noted that they are Moldovans, 7.9% - Romanians, 4.9% - Ukrainians and 4.2% - Gagauzians. The other ethnicities make up less than 4%.
However, in last year's census, 99.1% of the citizens said that they hold the nationality of the Republic of Moldova, of which 15.6% declared that they also have the citizenship of other states.
The census was conducted between April 8 and July 7, 2024 and was followed by the post-census survey between July 15 and August 11, 2024. About 2.4 million citizens were counted in the 2024 Census - both people with habitual residence and those without habitual residence in the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, more than 1.6 million homes were surveyed, including occupied, secondary and unoccupied ones.
The census is carried out at least once every 10 years.
