The data are calculated based on the number of the population with usual (permanent) residence on the territory of the country for the last year, except for short departures (vacations, business trips, medical treatment), which helps to exclude as accurately as possible from the calculation those citizens who actually live abroad for a long time. Moldovan citizens who went to work or live abroad for more than a year are completely excluded from this figure, even if they have a propiska and a Moldovan passport.
It is precisely because of the transition to this international methodology (counting real residents, not all registered persons) that the official number of Moldova’s population in statistical reports of recent years has been adjusted to below 2.4 million people.
The main factors of continuing depopulation remain migration and negative natural population growth (mortality exceeds birth rate). Migration outflow is the main factor of population reduction in Moldova, steadily outstripping natural decline. In the structure of the total population decline in the country, the ratio between these processes is about 55-60% (migration) against 40-45% (natural decline).
– Natural attrition amounts to ~10.0 thousand people (about 44% of the total decline). In 2025, 22.1 thousand children will be born in Moldova (historical birth rate minimum), while 32.1 thousand people will die.
– Migration outflow (negative balance) is ~12.9 thousand people (about 56% of the total decline). So many residents (net difference between those who left and those who arrived) left the country for more than a year or permanently.
