Moldova

Languages[edit]

The official language of Moldova is Romanian, a Romance language.[190]

The 1991 Declaration of Independence names the official language Romanian.[191][192] The Constitution of 1994 stated that the national language of the Republic of Moldova was Moldovan, and its writing is based on the Latin alphabet.[193]

In 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the name "Romanian", as used in the Declaration of Independence to identify the official language, prevails over the name "Moldovan", given in Article 13 of the Constitution.[194]

At the 2014 census (which did not include data from the Transnistrian region), 54.7% of the population named Moldovan whereas 24.0% named Romanian as their first language in daily use. Although only 4.1% are ethnic Russians, Russian is still used as the main language by 14.5% of the total population. Around 50% of ethnic Ukrainians, 33% of Gagauz, 33% of Bulgarians, and 5.7% of Moldovans declared Russian as their daily use language.

Historically Russian was taught in schools as the first foreign language, because of the relationship with the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. In the 21st century, the primary foreign language taught in the schools is English. In 2013 more than 60% of schoolchildren took it as their first foreign language. This was followed by French, taken by less than 50% of students. Since 1996, the Republic of Moldova has been a full member of La Francophonie. German was the third-ranked choice.[198]

Religion[edit]

The Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova (the Moldovan Orthodox Church), autonomous and subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Metropolis of Bessarabia (the Bessarabian Orthodox Church), autonomous and subordinated to the Romanian Orthodox Church, both claim to be the national church of the country.[199] For the 2004 census, Orthodox Christians, who make up 93.3% of Moldova's population, were not required to declare the particular of the two main churches they belong to. As of 2020, the U.S. Department of State estimated that 90% of the Orthodox adherents belong to the Moldovan Orthodox Church.[200] More than 2.0% of the population is Protestant including a growing number of Jehovah's Witnesses, 0.9% belongs to other religions, 1.0% is non-religious, 0.4% is atheist, and 2.2% did not answer the religion question at the census.

Education[edit]

There are 16 state and 15[201] private institutions of higher education in Moldova, with a total of 126,100 students, including 104,300 in the state institutions and 21,700 in the private ones. The number of students per 10,000 inhabitants in Moldova has been constantly growing since the collapse of the Soviet Union, reaching 217 in 2000–2001, and 351 in 2005–2006.

The National Library of Moldova was founded in 1832. The Moldova State University and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, the main scientific organizations of Moldova, were established in 1946. The Republic of Moldova was ranked 64th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, down from 58th in 2019.[202][203][204][205]

As of 2015[update], Romania allocates 5,000 scholarships in high schools and universities for Moldovan students.[206] Likewise, more than half of preschool children in Moldova benefit from Romania funded program to renovate and equip kindergartens.[207] Almost all the population is literate: the literacy rate of the population aged 15 and over is estimated at 99.4% (as of 2015[update]).[208]

Crime[edit]

The CIA World Factbook lists widespread crime and underground economic activity among major issues in Moldova.[17] Human trafficking of Moldovan women and children to other parts of Europe is a serious problem.[209][210]

In 2014, US$1 billion disappeared from three of Moldova's leading banks.[211] In two days, loans worth US$1 billion were transferred in to United Kingdom and Hong Kong-registered companies whose ultimate owners are unknown.[211][212] Banks are administered by the National Bank of Moldova, so this loss was covered from state reserves.[211]

Health and fertility[edit]

The total fertility rate (TFR) in Moldova was estimated in 2015 at 1.56 children/woman,[213] which is below the replacement rate of 2.1. In 2012, the average age of women at first birth was 23.9 years, with 75.2% of births being to women under 30, and 22.4% of births being to unmarried women.[214] The maternal mortality rate was 41 deaths/100,000 live births (in 2010)[215] and the infant mortality rate was 12.59 deaths/1,000 live births (in 2015).[216] The life expectancy in 2015 was estimated at 70.42 years (66.55 years male, 74.54 years female).[216]

Public expenditure on health was 4.2% of the GDP and private expenditure on health 3.2%.[217] There are about 264 physicians per 100,000 people.[217] Health expenditure was US$138 (PPP) per capita in 2004.[217]

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the country has seen a decrease in spending on health care and, as a result, the tuberculosis incidence rate in the country has grown.[218] According to a 2009 study, Moldova was struggling with one of the highest incidence rates of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world.[219]

The percentage of adults (aged 15–49) living with HIV/AIDS was estimated in 2009 at 0.40%.[220]

Emigration[edit]

Emigration is a mass phenomenon in Moldova and has a major impact on the country's demographics and economy. The Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service has estimated that 600,000 to one million Moldovan citizens (almost 25% of the population) are working abroad.[221]

Moldova's cultural tradition has been influenced primarily by the Romanian origins of its majority population, the roots of which go back to the second century AD, the period of Roman colonization in Dacia.[222] Located geographically at the crossroads of Latin, Slavic and other cultures, Moldova has enriched its own culture adopting and maintaining traditions of neighbouring regions and of other influential sources.[223] The largest ethnic group, which had come to identify itself widely as "Moldovan" by the 14th century, played a significant role in the shaping of classical Romanian culture. The culture has been also influenced by the Byzantine culture, the neighbouring Magyar and Slavic populations, and later by the Ottoman Turks. A strong Western European influence in Moldovan literature and arts was prevalent in the 19th century. During the periods 1812-1917 and 1944–89, Moldovans were influenced by Russian and Soviet administrative control as well and by ethnic Russian immigration.[222]

The country's cultural heritage was marked by numerous churches and monasteries built by the Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great in the 15th century, by the works of the later renaissance Metropolitans Varlaam and Dosoftei, and those of scholars such as Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, Nicolae Milescu, Dimitrie Cantemir[g] and Ion Neculce. In the 19th century, Moldavians from the territories of the medieval Principality of Moldavia, divided into Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Western Moldavia (after 1859, Romania), made a significant contribution to the formation of the modern Romanian culture. Among these were many Bessarabians, such as Alexandru Donici, Alexandru Hâjdeu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Constantin Stamati, Constantin Stamati-Ciurea, Costache Negruzzi, Alecu Russo, Constantin Stere.

Mihai Eminescu, a late Romantic poet, and Ion Creangă, a writer, are the most influential Romanian language artists, considered national writers both in Romania and Moldova.[224]