Moldova

1. ^ There is a controversy over the self-identification of Moldovans, with some authors considering them a subgroup of Romanians. It is also controversial and politically contentious whether the local language should be considered as a variant of Romanian or an outright distinct one.
   


2. ^ The de jure area, accepted by the Moldovan government and the Tiraspol authorities for Transnistria, is 3,509.6 square kilometers.[8] The de facto area administered by Transnistria is 3,653 square kilometers, while the area claimed by Transnistria is 4,163 square kilometers.
   


3. ^ a b c d Excludes data for Transnistria.
   


4. ^
   Today, the Bulgarians form one of the most solid elements in Southern Bessarabia, numbering (with the Gagauzes, i.e., Turkish-speaking Christians also from the Dobrudja) nearly 150,000. Colonization brought in numerous Great Russian peasants, and the Russian bureaucracy imported Russian office-holders and professional men; according to the Romanian estimate of 1920, there were about 75,000 (2.9%) Great Russians in the territory, and the Lipovans and Cossacks numbered 59,000 (2.2%); the Little Russians (Ukrainians) came to 254,000 (9.6%). That, plus about 10,000 Poles, brings the total number of Slavs to 545,000 in a population of 2,631,000, or about one-fifth.[37]
   


5. ^
   The Jewish minority was more numerous in the past (228,620 Jews in Bessarabia in 1897, or 11.8% of the population).[41]
   


6. ^ Note: Further 11,844 were deported on 12–13 June 1941 from other Romanian territories occupied by the USSR a year earlier.
   


7. ^ Prince Dimitrie Cantemir was one of the most important figures of the Moldavian culture of the 18th century. He wrote the first geographical, ethnographic, and economic description of the country. (in Latin) Descriptio Moldaviae, (Berlin, 1714), at Latin Wikisource.