The National Bureau of Statistics has published the final results of the 2024 Population and Housing Census (PHC) regarding the ethnocultural characteristics of the usually resident population as of the census reference date (April 8, 2024).

Ethnicity, language, and religion were recorded based on the free declaration of the respondents.

Key findings from the 2024 PHC:

• • Ethnicity: 76.7% of the usually resident population identified as Moldovan, up from 74.0% in 2014. Those identifying as Romanian increased from 6.6% to 8.0%, and Roma from 0.3% to 0.4%. The share of Ukrainians, Russians, Gagauz, and Bulgarians declined.
  • Gender structure: The highest share of women was among Russians (58.2%) and Ukrainians (57.2%), while men predominated among other ethnicities (52%).
  • Urban-rural distribution: Russians were predominantly urban (80.9%), while Gagauz (57.5%) and Moldovans (57.4%) were mostly rural.
  • Dual ethnicity: 7.9% of the population declared a second ethnicity.
  • Mother tongue: Declared by 99.9% of the population. Romanian and Moldovan combined were declared by 79.9% (up from 78.1% in 2014), with Moldovan at 48.1% and Romanian at 31.8%. Russian was declared by 11.6%, Gagauz 3.6%, Ukrainian 3.0%, Bulgarian 1.2%, Romani 0.3%, and other languages 0.3%.
  • Romanian was more common in urban areas (37.7%), while Moldovan dominated in rural areas (60.5%).
  • Language use: Russian was spoken regularly by 15.9% of the population, higher than its share as a mother tongue (11.6%), especially in urban areas (26.9%) and the North development region, notably Bălți (45.0%).
  • Language knowledge: 87.5% of the population reported knowing Moldovan or Romanian (54.5% Moldovan, 39.0% Romanian), 68.2% knew Russian, and 13.4% English.
  • Religion: 94.3% declared affiliation with the Orthodox faith, predominant across all ethnic groups and regions.
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