Loading the map…
Moldova's censuses, 1959–2024
Moldova, village by village: how many people remain in its 1,525 towns and villages
Moldova is the small country between Romania and Ukraine. Its 2024 census put the population at 2,409,207, leaving out Transnistria, the breakaway strip east of the Dniester river, and the city of Bender, which the government does not control. On the same territory there were 3,657,665 people in 1989 and 2,513,483 in 1959. In 2024, the country had fewer people than in 1959.
The map shows all 1,525 villages and towns in the census. Find any of them: how many people live there, how the population of its commune (its local council area) or town changed between 2014 and 2024, how many children and how many older people it has.
1959
How many people were there in 1959?#
The Soviet census of 1959 counted 2,513,483 people on the territory that Moldova's censuses can reach today, that is without the left bank of the Dniester and the city of Bender. Each light on the map stands for 1,000 of them, placed among the villages of their raion (district).
The Chișinău municipality, the capital and its suburbs, had 258,910 people, 10.3% of the total.
1970 · 1979 · 1989
1989: the highest of the seven censuses#
Between 1959 and 1989 the population grew by 1,144,182 to 3,657,665 at the last Soviet census. The Chișinău municipality had 770,948 people, three times its 1959 size.
Population at each census, 1959–2024 (to 1989 the people counted, then the statistics office's estimates); the lower area is the Chișinău municipality. The dotted line is the 1959 level.
2004
2004: the first census after independence#
Moldova became independent in 1991. Its first census after independence, in 2004, recorded 3,383,332 people, 274,333 fewer than in 1989.
The rule changed from one census to the next. The 2004 census also counted citizens who were temporarily abroad as residents; from 2014, people away for more than a year are no longer part of the population. So the falls between 1989, 2004 and 2014 compare only roughly.
2014
2014: almost 600,000 fewer#
The 2014 census put the population at 2,789,205, 594,127 fewer than in 2004.
2024
2024: fewer people than in 1959#
The 2024 census put the population at 2,409,207: 104,276 fewer than in 1959 and 1,248,458 fewer than in 1989.
The empty rings on the map mark the fall since 1989, one for every 1,000 people. The census does not show how much of the fall comes from people leaving, how much from more deaths than births and how much from the change in the counting rule.
The capital
Almost one in three lives in the Chișinău municipality#
In 1959 the Chișinău municipality held 10.3% of the country's people. In 2024 it held 29.9%: 720,128 people, close to its 1989 count (770,948).
Outside the municipality, the country had 41% fewer people in 2024 than in 1989 and 25% fewer than in 1959.
The districts
Almost every district has fewer people than in 1959#
Of the country's 35 units (32 raions, or districts, the municipalities of Chișinău and Bălți, Moldova's second city, and Gagauzia, an autonomous region), 31 had fewer people in 2024 than in 1959. Only the two municipalities and the districts of Anenii Noi and Ialoveni, next to Chișinău, were above their 1959 level.
Between 1989 and 2024, Basarabeasca, Cimișlia and Ocnița lost more than half their people, and Florești, Călărași, Leova and Dondușeni almost half.
Population of each of the 35 units (districts, municipalities, Gagauzia) at the seven censuses, 1959–2024. The dotted line marks the 1959 level. The percentage: change since 1989.
The villages
Of 896 communes and towns, almost all shrank after 2014#
The map now switches to localities: 1,525 lights, one for every village and town in the 2024 census, sized by population. A commune is a village, or a few villages, with one mayor. By the statistics office's estimates, between 2014 and 2024 the typical (median) commune or town lost almost 28% of its people, and 573 lost at least a quarter.
24 grew. Of these, 17 also grew when the 2014 number is compared with the 2024 field count, before the office's correction: 12 in the Chișinău municipality, plus the towns of Ialoveni and Orhei, Pohorniceni (Orhei district), Botnărești (Anenii Noi district) and Congazcicul de Sus (Gagauzia). For the others (Ghidighici, Drochia, Fălești, Vatra, Nisporeni, Cruzești and Condrița) the gain appears only after the office's correction, so it is uncertain.
Empty villages
Nine villages where nobody lives#
In 2024 the enumerators found nobody who usually lives in Bondareuca (Telenești), Caraiman (Dondușeni), Chetrișul Nou (Fălești), Dobrușa (Telenești), Dărcăuții Noi (Soroca), Frumușica Nouă (Florești), Gavrilovca (Sîngerei), Nistreni (Rezina) and Stălinești (Ocnița). Each of these four villages had a single resident: Cuconeștii Vechi (Edineț), Dudulești (Găgăuzia), Odaia (Șoldănești) and Vanțina Mică (Soroca).
In all, 176 villages had between one and 99 people, the four above included. Almost half of them are in the north.
Children and the old
Between 2014 and 2024, older people came to outnumber children#
The statistics office counts children under 16 apart from its older group: women aged 60 and over and men 63 and over. In 2014 there were 533,532 children and 452,074 older people. In 2024, 494,474 children and 571,664 older people.
On the map, localities with more older people than children are drawn in the cool colour: 1,163 of 1,525. In 36 localities not a single child under 16 lived.
One generation
The generation aged 15–19 in 2014 was 42% smaller ten years later#
In 2014 Moldova had 185,549 young people aged 15–19. In 2024 the same generation, now 25–29, numbered 107,846: 42% fewer. Very few people die at these ages, so the gap comes mostly from leaving, plus differences in coverage between the two censuses.
Each age group in 2014 (light bar) and the same generation, ten years older, in 2024 (solid bar).
Those who left
Where people born in Moldova live#
The UN counts at least 864,257 people born in the Republic of Moldova who lived in other countries in 2024. Most are in Italy (218,594; in 1990 there were 2,207), Russia (166,187), Ukraine (154,284), Romania (80,610) and France (54,287).
The UN table has no figure for Germany, the UK or the US, so the total is lower than the real number. Many of those in Russia and Ukraine moved in Soviet times. At home, 154,681 people counted in 2024 had once lived in another country for more than a year.
Every locality
The population of any village or town#
Type the name of a village or town, or tap the map.
Try: