Moldova
Name
| Official name | Republic of Moldova — Republica Moldova |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (1940–41, 1944–91); Bessarabia of the Russian Empire (1812–1917) and of Romania (1918–40); the Moldavian Democratic Republic (1917–18); the eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia (1359–1812); Moldavia in the older English |
| Demonym | Moldovan |
| Meaning of the name | From the river Moldova of the Carpathians in Romania, the cradle of the principality of 1359 — the legend of the voivode Dragoș and his hound Molda drowned in the hunt for the aurochs; Bessarabia from the Basarab princes of Wallachia |
| Motto | None official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Chișinău — the village of 1436, the capital of Bessarabia from 1818; about 700,000 in the city, 1 million in the municipality, a third of the country |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Chișinău; Tiraspol, about 130,000, the capital of Transnistria; Bălți, the city of the north; Bender — Tighina — the fortress town held by Transnistria; Rîbnița; Cahul; Ungheni on the Prut, the gate to Romania; Soroca of the fortress and the Roma mansions; Orhei; Comrat of the Gagauz |
| Official language | Romanian — named "Moldovan" in the Constitution of 1994 until the parliament's law of 16 March 2023 that wrote the name Romanian into every law; Russian the language of the minorities and the Soviet past, still spoken by most; Gagauz and Ukrainian the regional tongues; the Latin alphabet since the law of 31 August 1989, the Cyrillic kept only in Transnistria |
| Currency | Moldovan leu — MDL, L; 100 bani; since 29 November 1993; about 17 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | Eastern European Time, UTC+2; summer time UTC+3 |
| Calling code | +373 |
| Internet domain | .md |
| ISO 3166 codes | MD · MDA · 498 |
| Vehicle registration code | MD |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and F |
| Independence | 27 August 1991, from the Soviet Union — the Declaration of Independence voted by the parliament as the Moscow coup failed; the sovereignty declared 23 June 1990; recognized by the Union in December 1991 |
| National days | 27 August, Independence Day; 31 August, Romanian Language Day, for the language law of 1989; 1 and 7 January, the New Year and the Orthodox Christmas; 8 March; Orthodox Easter and the Easter of the Blajini a week after, the day of the dead; 1 May; 9 May, Victory Day and, since 2017, Europe Day the same day; 1 June; 25 December; 14 October, the day of the capital |
| Constitution | 29 July 1994 — the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, in force 27 August 1994: a parliamentary republic since the amendments of 2000, the president elected by the people again since the Constitutional Court's ruling of 2016, the Parliament of 101 for four years, the neutrality of Article 11, the autonomy of Gagauzia and the special status promised the Left Bank; amended by the referendum of 20 October 2024 to write the goal of membership of the European Union into the preamble and the text, 50.35% for and 49.65% against on a turnout of 51% |
| Population | 2,409,200 at the census of 2024 on the government-held territory, down 14% from 2,804,801 in 2014 and a third from 1989; Transnistria about 350,000 by its own count; about 2.4 million (2026 est.), falling by about 1.5% a year |
| Area | 33,851 km² (13,070 sq mi) — land 32,891 km², water 960 km²; landlocked; the Left Bank of the Dniester, about 11%, under the breakaway authorities |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Three vertical bands of blue, yellow and red — the Romanian tricolor, the colors of the principalities and of the revolution of 1848 — with the state arms on the yellow: a golden eagle holding a cross in its beak and an olive branch and a scepter in its talons, bearing on its breast the shield of the Principality of Moldavia, the aurochs head between a rose, a crescent and an eight-pointed star; adopted 27 April 1990 by the Supreme Soviet as the Soviet flag came down, the same on both sides only since 2010.Flag of Moldova |
|---|---|
| Coat of arms | The eagle of the flag with the cross, the olive branch and the scepter, and the shield parted red and blue with the head of the aurochs — the bour of the princes of Moldavia since the 14th century — the star between its horns, the rose and the crescent beside; designed by Gheorghe Vrabie and adopted 3 November 1990 |
| National anthem | "Limba noastră" ("Our Language") — the poem of the priest Alexei Mateevici of 1917, "our language is a treasure," set by Alexandru Cristea; adopted 22 July 1995 in place of "Deșteaptă-te, române!," the Romanian anthem sung as Moldova's from 1991 to 1994; the only anthem in the world in praise of a language |
| National motto | None official |
| National colors | Blue, yellow and red |
| National animal | The aurochs — the bour of the arms, the wild ox of the princes' hunt, gone from the forests by the 1600s; the white stork of the villages; widely cited |
| National tree | The oak — the oaks of the Codru forests and the Oak of Stephen the Great at Cobâlea, 700 years old; the vine the tree of the economy; widely cited |
| National flower | None official — the rose of the arms; the Mărțișor, the red-and-white thread of 1 March, on UNESCO's list since 2017 |
| National dish | Mămăligă, the cornmeal porridge, with brânză cheese, sour cream and tocană stew; sarmale, the stuffed cabbage leaves; plăcinte, the filled pastries; zeamă, the sour chicken soup of the weddings; the wines of Purcari, Cricova and the rest; widely cited |
| National sport | Football, Sheriff Tiraspol's win at the Bernabéu over Real Madrid in the Champions League of September 2021; trânta, the belt wrestling of the villages; the wrestlers and canoeists of the Olympic medals, the two bronzes of Paris in 2024; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag and the arms by the laws of 1990 and the Constitution; the anthem by the law of 1995; the animals, tree, flower, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Eastern Europe, landlocked between Romania and Ukraine — the Prut the western border and the Dniester through the east; the Black Sea 50 km away across the Ukrainian Bugeac, the Danube touched at the country's southern tip |
|---|---|
| Land borders | 1,885 km (1,171 mi) with two neighbors — Ukraine 1,202, Romania 683; the 430 km of the Ukrainian line along Transnistria outside the government's control; the Romanian border the EU's, the Ungheni and Leușeni crossings |
| Coastline | None — landlocked; 430 m of the Danube's bank at Giurgiulești, the port of 2006 |
| Highest point | Bălănești Hill, 430 m (1,411 ft), in the Codru hills west of Chișinău |
| Lowest point | The Dniester at the Ukrainian border, 2 m (7 ft) |
| Mean elevation | 139 m (456 ft) |
| Rivers | The Dniester — Nistru — 1,362 km from the Carpathians to the Black Sea, 660 through the country and its border with Transnistria, the water of Chișinău and the drought and oil-spill alerts of 2026; the Prut, 953 km, the Romanian border to the Danube, the Costești-Stânca dam of 1978 shared; the Răut of Orhei and Bălți; the Bîc of the capital; the Cogîlnic, the Ialpug of the south to the Ukrainian lakes |
| Lakes | The Costești-Stânca reservoir of the Prut, 59 km², the largest; the Dubăsari reservoir of the Dniester of 1954; Beleu, the natural lake of the Prut floodplain in the Lower Prut reserve; the Ghidighici reservoir of Chișinău, the "sea" of the capital; the Cahul and Manta lakes of the south |
| Terrain | Rolling steppe and hills — the Codru hills of the center with the oak forests and the vineyards, the Bălți steppe of the north, the Bugeac steppe of the south with the Gagauz; the Dniester gorges of the northeast and the Orheiul Vechi cliff above the Răut with its cave monasteries; the Emil Racoviță cave of the north, 89 km of gypsum passages, the third-longest in the world; the black earth over three-quarters of the land |
| Climate | Temperate continental — warm summers of 25°C and mild winters, the black earth's rain of 400–600 mm and its droughts; the south drier and hotter; the frosts of January |
| Natural hazards | Drought — the harvests of 2020 and 2022 cut by half; the floods of the Prut and the Dniester of 2008 and 2010; the earthquakes of the Vrancea zone across the border, 1977 and 1986; the winter blackouts of 31 January 2026 when the lines from Ukraine and Romania failed in the frost after the Russian strikes; the oil spill of 15 March 2026 from the Russian strike on Ukraine's Dniester dam that put the river's water on alert for 15 days; the drones of the war fallen at Nucăreni on 17 January and Sofia on 6 February 2026 |
| Natural resources | The chernozem, the black earth of the steppe; lignite, phosphorite, gypsum and limestone, the limestone quarries that became the wine cellars of Cricova and Mileștii Mici; the sun and wind of the south; no oil, no gas, the country importing all its fuel |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 74% — the arable 55%, the vineyards and orchards; forest about 12%, among the least wooded countries of Europe |
| National parks | Orhei National Park of 2013, the first, around the Orheiul Vechi cliff and the Răut; the Lower Prut, a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 2018 with Lake Beleu and the pelicans; the Codrii reserve of 1971, the oldest, of the oak and beech; the Pădurea Domnească of the Prut with the bison; Plaiul Fagului; the Iagorlîc of the Dniester; the Emil Racoviță cave |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1 — the Struve Geodetic Arc (2005), shared with nine countries, the survey point of Rudi in the north; Orheiul Vechi on the tentative list; the Colinda carols of Christmas (2013, with Romania), the wall carpets of the villages (2016) and the Mărțișor (2017) on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 32 districts — raioane — and 3 municipalities, Chișinău, Bălți and Bender; the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia of 1994 with its capital at Comrat, its People's Assembly and its elected governor, the bashkan; the Left Bank of the Dniester, Transnistria, a territorial unit in law and the "Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic" in fact since 1990 with Tiraspol as its capital; 898 communes and towns |
People
| Population | 2,409,200 (census of 2024, without Transnistria); about 2.4 million (2026 est.) |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 80 per km² (210 per sq mi) on the government's territory — Chișinău a third of the whole |
| Population growth | Negative — about −1.5% a year, the fastest decline in Europe, the emigration to Romania, Italy, Germany and Russia and the deaths above the births; the people aged 65 and over 18.2% of the census from 11.3% in 2014 |
| Median age | About 38 years |
| Life expectancy | About 71 years — 67 for men, 76 for women |
| Fertility rate | About 1.7 births per woman |
| Urban population | 46.4% (census of 2024), from 38.5% in 2014 |
| Adult literacy | About 99% |
| Ethnic groups | Moldovans 76.7% and Romanians 8% — the same people by the language and the history, divided by the name they give themselves, the "Romanian" identity rising in the cities and the young, 5.7% more declaring Romanian as a second ethnicity; Ukrainians 5.1%; Gagauz 4%, the Orthodox Turkic people of the south; Russians 3.4%; Bulgarians 1.6%, of Taraclia; Roma 0.4%; 185 ethnicities declared (census of 2024, without Transnistria, whose own count is a third Russian, a third Ukrainian and a third Moldovan) |
| Languages | Romanian as the mother tongue of 79.9% — called Moldovan by 48.1% and Romanian by 31.8% at the census — and as the language of the schools and the state; Russian the mother tongue of 11.6% and the second language of most, the language of Transnistria, Gagauzia and the cities' Soviet generation; Gagauz 3.6%; Ukrainian 2.9%; Bulgarian; the Romanian of the young and the Russian of the old the country's divide (census of 2024) |
| Religion | Orthodox Christian 94.3% — the Metropolis of Chișinău and All Moldova under the Moscow Patriarchate holding most of the parishes and the Metropolis of Bessarabia under Bucharest gaining them, the priests' pilgrimages to Moscow of the election year the government's charge of interference; Baptist, Pentecostal and Adventist about 2%; Catholic, the Poles; Jewish, the remnant of the Kishinev of the pogrom of 1903 and the Holocaust; none about 1% (census of 2024) |
| Human Development Index | 0.763 (2023 data, 2025 report) — high; about 90th of 193 |
| The Gagauz | The Gagauz of the south, about 100,000, a Turkic-speaking Orthodox people of the Bugeac with an autonomy since the law of 23 December 1994 — Comrat their capital, the bashkan their governor, the "Gagauz Republic" of 1990–94 their memory; the vote of 2014 for the Russian customs union, the governor Evghenia Guțul elected 14 May 2023 with the money of the fugitive Ilan Shor and sentenced to seven years on 5 August 2025 for financing her party illegally, "a political case," she said; the Constitutional Court's ruling of August 2026 on the limits of the autonomy's powers; the Russian-speaking minority most open to Moscow's narrative, the government says |
| Sport | Football — Sheriff Tiraspol, the club of Transnistria's Sheriff company that beat Real Madrid 2–1 in Madrid on 28 September 2021, the champions of 22 seasons, the Zimbru of Chișinău; wrestling, the Olympic bronze of Anastasia Nichita in Paris, and the canoe bronze of Serghei Tarnovschi the same games, the medals of 2024; the weightlifting; trânta; the biathlon; the Chișinău marathon |
| Diaspora | About 1 million Moldovans abroad, more than a third of the people — Italy, Russia, Germany, Romania, France, Britain, Ireland, Israel; more than a million holders of Romanian passports by the descent from the interwar citizens, and the EU's doors open to them; the diaspora's votes the margin of every election since 2020, 280,000 cast in 2025 for the pro-European side by nearly four to one; the remittances about a tenth of GDP |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary republic under the Constitution of 1994 — the president elected by the people for four years as head of state, with the foreign policy and the army and the nomination of the prime minister; the prime minister and the government responsible to the Parliament of 101; the Constitutional Court; the autonomy of Gagauzia; the neutrality of the Constitution; the state the Freedom House rates free since 2024 |
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| President | Maia Sandu (Party of Action and Solidarity — PAS), since 24 December 2020 — the sixth president, the first woman; born 24 May 1972 at Risipeni, an economist of the Chișinău academy and the Harvard Kennedy School, the World Bank adviser, the education minister of 2012–15, the founder of PAS in 2016, the prime minister of June to November 2019; elected 15 November 2020 with 57.7% over Igor Dodon and re-elected 3 November 2024 with 55.33% over Alexandr Stoianoglo on a turnout of 54%, the diaspora her margin; "the Russian interference is constant," she said in 2026, "before, during and after the elections"; her term to December 2028, the last the Constitution allows |
| Prime Minister | Vasile Tofan (independent, with PAS), since 22 July 2026 — the eighteenth; born 1982, a businessman and investor, a senior partner of the Ukraine-based fund Horizon Capital, a Harvard Business School MBA and an Erasmus University graduate in public administration, a political newcomer at 44; nominated by the president on 10 July and elected by the parliament on 21 July 2026 by 53 votes to 21 with 21 abstentions, sworn 22 July with his cabinet — Mihai Popșoi kept as deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Cristina Gherasimov as deputy prime minister for European integration and chief negotiator; "everything we do, we do to bring Moldova to the EU," his pledge of all the chapters open by the end of 2026, the treaty by 2028 and membership in 2030, "overly optimistic" in the analysts' view |
| The Munteanu government | Alexandru Munteanu, the economist and banker of the World Bank and the American Chamber of Commerce, prime minister 1 November 2025 – 8 July 2026 after Dorin Recean's three years — resigned 3 July 2026 after eight months, "I can no longer exercise my mandate in accordance with my principles and beliefs," his words, amid the cronyism and corruption scandals at MoldATSA, the state air traffic agency whose affair uncovered by Ziarul de Gardă implicated a relative of the president, and at the agriculture ministry; the president's account that he had moved too slowly on the reforms, the press's that PAS had blocked his purge of the administration; Eugen Osmochescu, the economy minister, acting prime minister 8–22 July 2026 |
| The 2025 election | Held 28 September 2025 for the 101 seats: PAS 50.2% and 55 seats, its second majority; the Patriotic Bloc of Igor Dodon's Socialists, the Communists and their allies 24.2% and 26; the Alternative bloc of Chișinău's mayor Ion Ceban and Stoianoglo 8% and 8; Renato Usatîi's Our Party 6.2% and 6; the Democracy at Home party of Vasile Costiuc 5.6% and 6; turnout 52.2% with 280,000 votes from abroad; the Heart of Moldova party barred two days before the vote and Shor's parties before that; the vote-buying network paid from Moscow, the bomb threats at the polling stations abroad and the disinformation the government and the observers of the OSCE described, "the biggest interference ever," Sandu said; "hysteria," Moscow said, denying any; Igor Grosu (PAS) re-elected Speaker |
| The EU talks | Candidate status granted 23 June 2022 with Ukraine, four months after the invasion; the negotiations opened 25 June 2024 and stalled two years behind Hungary's veto of Ukraine, to which Moldova's bid was coupled; the referendum of 20 October 2024 that wrote the EU into the Constitution by 50.35%; the screening finished, the Reform and Growth Facility of €1.9 billion for 2025–27 and the government's 90% of the measures of the first half of 2026 met; the veto lifted by Hungary's new government after its agreement with Kyiv on the Hungarian minority, and THE FIRST CLUSTER, "Fundamentals" — the rule of law, the courts, the fight against corruption — OPENED AT THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE OF LUXEMBOURG ON 15 JUNE 2026, endorsed by the European Council of 18–19 June; a second cluster agreed on 10 July and the rest to be opened one by one from September after Budapest refused to open all six at once, "not a good idea," Prime Minister Magyar said; the European Parliament's call of August 2026 to open them all; the target of 2030 |
| Transnistria | The Left Bank of the Dniester with Bender — about 11% of the territory and 350,000 people, a third each Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan — declared the "Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic" on 2 September 1990 against the language law and the union with Romania it feared, held since the war of March to July 1992 that killed about 1,000 and ended in the ceasefire of 21 July 1992; about 1,500 Russian troops of the "operational group" still there against Moldova's demand at the UN, and the 20,000 metric tons of Soviet munitions of the Cobasna depot; Vadim Krasnoselsky its president, the Sheriff company its economy, the Cuciurgan power plant its gift; the gas cut off on 1 January 2025 when Gazprom's free supply ended with the Ukrainian transit, the blackouts of the winter and the European aid the region accepted; 71 to 77% of its exports to the European Union; Russia's law of 15 May 2026 easing citizenship for its residents, "the passport of an aggressor state," Munteanu said, and Russia's polling stations there for its Duma election of 18 September 2026 over Chișinău's protest; the "5+2" talks dead since 2019; recognized by no state; Chișinău's strategy of reintegration by the economy, the region's of "independence" by its referendum of 2006 |
| Parliament | The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova — 101 deputies elected for four years by proportional representation on national lists with a 5% threshold; Igor Grosu the Speaker since 29 July 2021; PAS 55, the Patriotic Bloc 26, Alternative 8, Our Party 6, Democracy at Home 6; the opposition leaders Igor Dodon, Renato Usatîi, Ion Ceban and Vasile Costiuc |
| The next election | The presidential election in the autumn of 2028, Sandu barred from a third term; the parliamentary election in 2029; the local elections of 2027 |
| The oligarchs and the courts | The "theft of the billion" of 2014 — US$1 billion, an eighth of GDP, taken from three banks; Vladimir Plahotniuc, the oligarch who ran the state in 2015–19, fled in June 2019, arrested at Athens on 22 July 2025, extradited on 25 September 2025 and sentenced to 19 years on 22 April 2026 for the fraud and money laundering, the charges he calls political; Ilan Shor, the mayor and party leader convicted in absentia to 15 years in 2023, in Moscow, the paymaster of the vote-buying of 2024–25 by the government's account, his parties banned 19 June 2023; Igor Dodon, the president of 2016–20, on trial for treason and the "bag" of money, the charges he denies; the judicial reform and the vetting of judges the first cluster's test |
| Legal system | Civil law of the Romanian and Soviet traditions, the codes rewritten for the EU; the Constitutional Court of six; the Supreme Court of Justice; the pre-vetting of judges and prosecutors since 2022; the death penalty abolished 1995; the law of 2023 on the language, the ban on the St. George ribbon and the "Z" of 2022; the Ludmila Vartic case of March 2026 and the protests over domestic violence |
| Local government | 32 districts and the municipalities with elected councils and mayors, Ion Ceban of the Alternative bloc the mayor of Chișinău since 2019 and of the presidential ambitions; the Gagauz People's Assembly of 35 and the bashkan; the local elections of 2027; the villages of the mayors of PAS and the Socialists |
| Neutrality and defense | Permanent neutrality by Article 11 of the Constitution and the Russian troops on the soil against it; the National Army of about 6,500 with the EU's €200 million of the European Peace Facility since 2021, the radars and the air defense of the war years, the Piranha carriers of Germany; the 2% of GDP pledged; the NATO partnership since 1994 and no membership sought; the Security and Intelligence Service and the spies of the General Staff of 2024; the Russian drones that fall on the villages; the Ukrainian border the front's edge |
| Foreign policy | The European Union first; Romania, the "sister state" of the language, the gas pipeline of Iași–Ungheni–Chișinău, the electricity of the Vulcănești–Chișinău line, the passports; Ukraine, the neighbor at war, the grain trains and the refugees of 2022; Russia, the ties of the diplomats cut down to the embassy after the expulsions of 2023, the airspace closed, the Commonwealth of Independent States left by the law the president signed on 8 April 2026, the Russian gas ended and the market lost; the United States and the Council of Europe; the European Political Community summit hosted at Bulboaca on 1 June 2023; the Moldova–EU summits |
| United Nations | Member since 2 March 1992; the General Assembly's resolution of 22 June 2018 by 64 votes calling for the Russian troops' withdrawal from Transnistria; the Council of Europe since 1995; the OSCE mission of 1993 |
| Other memberships | The WTO (2001); the Council of Europe; the OSCE; the Energy Community; the GUAM with Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan; the Central European Free Trade Agreement; the Francophonie; the Black Sea Economic Cooperation; the CIS from 1994 to the exit of 2026; the Association Agreement with the EU of 27 June 2014 and its free trade area |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$19 billion (2025, IMF) |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$7,800 (2025) — among the lowest in Europe with Ukraine |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$18,500 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 0.1% in 2024 in the energy shock and the drought, about 1% in 2025 and 2–3% expected in 2026 with the EU's money; inflation about 7% in 2025 from 30% in 2022, the gas and the power prices; unemployment about 4%; the leu at about 17 to the dollar |
| Economy by sector | Services about 70%, industry about 20%, agriculture about 10% — a third of the workers on the land |
| Currency | Moldovan leu (MDL) |
| Wine and the land | Wine — the vineyards of 130,000 hectares, the cellars of Cricova, 120 km of tunnels in the limestone, and Mileștii Mici, 200 km with 2 million bottles, the largest wine collection in the world; the Purcari of the tsars' table and the Negru de Purcari; the Russian ban of 2006 and 2013 that sent the wine to Europe, China and the diaspora; the sunflower seeds and oil, the wheat and corn of the black earth, the apples and plums, the walnuts; the drought of the summers |
| Industry and the IT | The textile and shoe workshops for the European brands; the Draexlmaier and Lear cable harnesses for the German cars; the sugar and the canned fruit; Moldova IT Park of 2018, the virtual park of the 7% tax with 2,000 companies and about €1 billion of exports a year, the sector Sandu calls the strength; the Rîbnița steel mill and the Cuciurgan power plant on the Left Bank, the Sheriff empire of Transnistria |
| Energy | No Russian gas since 1 January 2025 — the Gazprom contract gone with the Ukrainian transit, the gas from Romania and the European markets through the Iași–Ungheni–Chișinău pipeline of 2021, Energocom the state buyer; the electricity from Romania on the Vulcănești–Chișinău line of 2025 in place of the Cuciurgan plant of Transnistria that made 80% of it on free Russian gas until the cut; the €250 million of the EU for the winter of 2025; the wind and solar of the south rising; the blackouts of January 2026 in the frost; "that dependency was used against us, and we ended it," Sandu said |
| Remittances | About US$2 billion a year, a tenth of GDP, from the million abroad — from Italy, Israel, Germany and Britain now, from Russia once; a third of GDP in 2006, the highest in Europe then |
| Public finances | Public debt about 40% of GDP; the deficit about 4%; the EU's Reform and Growth Facility of €1.9 billion for 2025–27, the largest per head of any candidate; the IMF program; the pensions raised and the energy subsidies of the winters; the Chișinău airport concession returned to the state in 2021 and the fight over it; the budget of 2026 |
| Income classification | Upper-middle income (World Bank) since 2021 |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airport | Chișinău International Airport — about 3 million passengers a year, the concession of 2013 to Avia Invest canceled in 2021, the new terminal planned; Bălți; Mărculești, the military field; Tiraspol's airport closed since 1992 |
|---|---|
| Airlines | HiSky and FlyOne, the private carriers of the 2020s, after Air Moldova of 1993 went bankrupt in 2023; Wizz Air, Turkish, LOT and Austrian the links; the airspace closed to the Russian carriers since 2022 and the war's detours |
| Port | Giurgiulești on the Danube, opened 2006 on the 430 m of bank bought from Ukraine in 1999, the only port, the oil terminal and the grain; the river ports of the Dniester silted; the Ukrainian ports of Odesa and Reni the sea route |
| Railways | About 1,150 km (715 mi) of the Russian broad gauge — the Moldovan Railway, CFM, of the Soviet lines from Ungheni to Chișinău, Bender, Tiraspol and Odesa; the Chișinău–Iași and Chișinău–Bucharest trains with the change of bogies at Ungheni; the Berezino–Basarabeasca line rebuilt in 2022 for the Ukrainian grain; the line of Transnistria in the separatists' hands; the European gauge to Ungheni planned |
| Roads | About 9,400 km (5,800 mi), most paved and many broken; the M1 from Chișinău to Leușeni and the Romanian border, the M3 to Giurgiulești, the M2 north to Soroca; the trolleybuses of Chișinău and Bălți; the Ukrainian trucks of the war; the driving on the right |
| Communications | Moldtelecom of the state; Orange and Moldcell of the mobiles; the internet among the fastest in Europe; the Russian channels banned since 2022, the Telegram of the campaigns |
History in dates
| c. 4500 BC | The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture of the painted pottery |
|---|---|
| 1359 | The Principality of Moldavia — Bogdan I |
| 1457 | Stephen the Great, to 1504 — the 46 battles |
| 1538 | Ottoman suzerainty |
| 1812 | Bessarabia to Russia — the Treaty of Bucharest, 28 May |
| 1818 | Chișinău the capital |
| 1903 | The Kishinev pogrom, 19–20 April — 49 dead |
| 1917 | The Moldavian Democratic Republic, 2 December |
| 1918 | Union with Romania, 27 March |
| 1924 | The Moldavian ASSR at Tiraspol, 12 October |
| 1940 | Soviet annexation, 28 June; the Moldavian SSR, 2 August |
| 1941 | The Romanian return; the Holocaust of Bessarabia |
| 1944 | The Soviets return, August |
| 1946 | The famine, to 1947 |
| 1949 | The deportation of 6 July — 35,000 |
| 1989 | The language law, 31 August |
| 1990 | The flag, 27 April; the Gagauz republic, 19 August; Transnistria declared, 2 September |
| 1991 | Independence, 27 August |
| 1992 | The Transnistrian war, March–July; the ceasefire, 21 July |
| 1994 | The Constitution, 29 July; Gagauzia's autonomy, 23 December |
| 2001 | The Communists win — Voronin |
| 2009 | The riots of 7 April; the pro-European alliance |
| 2014 | The EU agreement, 27 June; the theft of the billion, November |
| 2016 | Dodon president, 13 November |
| 2019 | The crisis of June; Plahotniuc flees |
| 2020 | Sandu elected, 15 November |
| 2021 | PAS wins, 11 July |
| 2022 | Candidate status, 23 June |
| 2023 | The language named Romanian, 16 March; Guțul elected, 14 May; the Shor party banned, 19 June |
| 2024 | The talks opened, 25 June; the referendum and the first round, 20 October; Sandu re-elected, 3 November |
| 2025 | The gas cut, 1 January; Guțul jailed, 5 August; Plahotniuc extradited, 25 September; the election, 28 September; Munteanu, 1 November |
| 2026 | The drones, January–February; the Dniester alert, 15 March; the CIS exit, 8 April; Plahotniuc's 19 years, 22 April; the Russian citizenship law, 15 May; the first cluster, 15 June; Munteanu resigns, 3 July; Tofan, 22 July; the Russian polls in Tiraspol, 18 September |
Records & firsts
| The largest wine collection in the world | Mileștii Mici, 2 million bottles |
|---|---|
| The fastest-falling population in Europe | A third gone since 1989 |
| An anthem to a language | "Limba noastră" |
| The EU written into the constitution by 50.35% | 20 October 2024 |
| The theft of the billion | An eighth of GDP, 2014 |
| The oligarch sentenced to 19 years | Plahotniuc, 22 April 2026 |
| The first cluster opened | 15 June 2026 |
| Sheriff at the Bernabéu | 2–1, 28 September 2021 |
| The third-longest gypsum cave | Emil Racoviță, 89 km |
| The 430 meters of the Danube | Giurgiulești |
| An Orthodox Turkic people with an autonomy | The Gagauz |
| The black earth | Three-quarters of the land |
| A million Romanian passports | The diaspora's key to the EU |
| Out of the CIS | 8 April 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Moldova?
The Republic of Moldova — Republica Moldova in Romanian — the state that declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 27 August 1991 as the Moldavian SSR became a country, on the land between the Prut and the Dniester that Russia took from the Ottoman-ruled Principality of Moldavia as Bessarabia in 1812 and Romania held between the world wars. The name is the medieval principality's, from the river Moldova of the Carpathian foothills, now in Romania, where the legend has the voivode Dragoș hunting the aurochs; the eastern half of that principality is the republic, and the language dispute of "Moldovan" or "Romanian" was settled by the parliament in 2023 in favor of Romanian.
What is the capital of Moldova?
Chișinău — Kishinev of the Russian years — on the Bîc river in the center of the country, a monastery village of 1436 that the tsars made the capital of Bessarabia in 1818 and rebuilt in white limestone and Soviet concrete after the war destroyed it; about 700,000 people in the city and 1 million in the municipality, a third of the country, with the Stephen the Great statue and park, the cathedral and the Triumphal Arch on the great square. Tiraspol on the Dniester is the second city and the capital of the breakaway Transnistria; Bălți the "northern capital," Bender, Comrat of the Gagauz and Cahul the others.
How big is Moldova, and how many people live there?
About 33,851 km² (13,070 sq mi) — the size of Maryland, a little smaller than Belgium — landlocked between Romania across the Prut and Ukraine across the Dniester and the Bugeac steppe, with a 430-meter frontage on the Danube at Giurgiulești for its one port; about 11 percent of it, the Left Bank of the Dniester, is held by the breakaway Transnistria. The census of 2024, the country's third, counted 2,409,200 people on the territory the government controls, down 14 percent from 2014 and a third below the 3.6 million of 1989 — the fastest-falling population in Europe, a million of its people abroad; Transnistria adds about 350,000 by its own count.
What are the highest and lowest points of Moldova?
Bălănești Hill, 430 m (1,411 ft), in the Codru hills of the center west of Chișinău, the highest point of a rolling land of vineyards and oak woods; and the Dniester where it leaves for Ukraine at 2 m (7 ft). The Dniester runs 660 km through the country from north to south, the border of Transnistria, and the Prut the whole western border to the Danube; the black earth of the steppe, the chernozem, covers three-quarters of the land and is the country's wealth.
What currency does Moldova use?
The Moldovan leu (ISO code MDL, L), of 100 bani, introduced on 29 November 1993 in place of the Soviet ruble and its coupon, the "lion" of the Romanian tradition — about 17 lei to the U.S. dollar; the euro is the target of the accession. Clocks keep Eastern European Time, UTC+2, with summer time; Moldova drives on the right. Transnistria prints its own ruble, which no one else takes.
Who governs Moldova?
President Maia Sandu, the head of state since 24 December 2020 and re-elected on 3 November 2024 with 55 percent, the Harvard-trained economist who took the country from Moscow's orbit toward Brussels — her Party of Action and Solidarity won the parliamentary election of 28 September 2025 with 50 percent and 55 of the 101 seats despite what the government and Western observers called a Russian campaign of vote-buying and disinformation and Moscow denied; and Prime Minister Vasile Tofan, the investor and Harvard MBA of 44 whom the parliament elected on 21 July 2026 after his predecessor Alexandru Munteanu resigned on 3 July amid the cronyism scandal at the air traffic agency. The European Union opened the first chapter cluster of Moldova's accession talks on 15 June 2026; the government's aim is a signed treaty by 2028 and membership by 2030. The next presidential election is due in 2028 and the parliamentary in 2029.
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