Moldova
Moldova (/mɒlˈdoʊvə/ ⓘ mol-DOH-və, sometimes UK: /ˈmɒldəvə/ MOL-də-və;[13][14][15] Romanian pronunciation: [molˈdova]), officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian: Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans.[16] The country spans a total of 33,483 km2 (13,067 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 2.5 million as of January 2023.[17] Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south.[18] The unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic with its capital in Chișinău, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.
This article is about the modern state. For the historical principality, see Moldavia. For other uses, see Moldova (disambiguation).
Republic of MoldovaRepublica Moldova (Romanian)
82.07% Moldovans / Romanians[a]
6.57% Ukrainians
4.57% Gagauzes
4.06% Russians
1.88% Bulgarians
0.85% other
- 91.8% Christianity
- 90.1% Eastern Orthodoxy
- 1.7% other Christian
- 91.8% Christianity
- 0.3% other religions
- 5.5% no religion
- 2.4% unspecified
1346
1812
15 December 1917
9 April 1918
12 October 1924
2 August 1940
2 November 1990
27 August 1991a
29 July 1994
1.4 (incl. Transnistria)
30,334 km2 (11,712 sq mi) [b]
82.8/km2 (214.5/sq mi)
2023 estimate
2023 estimate
26.0[11]
low
right
Most of Moldovan territory was a part of the Principality of Moldavia from the 14th century until 1812, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Ottoman Empire (to which Moldavia was a vassal state) and became known as Bessarabia. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which three years later united with Wallachia to form Romania, but Russian rule was restored over the whole of the region in 1878. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Bessarabia briefly became an autonomous state within the Russian Republic. In February 1918, it declared independence and then integrated into Romania later that year following a vote of its assembly. The decision was disputed by Soviet Russia, which in 1924 established, within the Ukrainian SSR, a so-called Moldavian autonomous republic on partially Moldovan-inhabited territories to the east of Bessarabia. In 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, leading to the creation of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR).
On 27 August 1991, as the dissolution of the Soviet Union was underway, the Moldavian SSR declared independence and took the name Moldova.[19] However, the strip of Moldovan territory on the east bank of the Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990. The constitution of Moldova was adopted in 1994, and the country became a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. Under the presidency of Maia Sandu, elected in 2020 on a pro-Western and anti-corruption ticket, Moldova has pursued membership of the European Union, and was granted candidate status in June 2022.[20] Accession talks to the EU began on 13 December 2023.[21] Sandu has also suggested an end to Moldova's constitutional commitment to military neutrality in favour of a closer alliance with NATO and strongly condemned Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.[22]
Moldova is the second poorest country in Europe by GDP per official capita after Ukraine and much of its GDP is dominated by the service sector.[23] It has one of the lowest Human Development Indexes in Europe, ranking 76th in the world (2022).[12] Moldova ranks 60th in the world on the Global Innovation Index as of 2023.[24] Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, and the Association Trio.
