MoldovaPOPULATION AND ETHNIC COMPOSITION
Population Characteristics
Figure 15. Population Distribution of Moldova by Age and Gender,
1990
Source: Based on information from World Bank, Statistical
Handbook: States of the Former USSR, Washington, 1992, 279;
and United Nations, Department for Economic and Social Information
and Policy Analysis, Demographic Yearbook (Annuaire
démographique), 1992, New York, 1994, 184.
Although Moldova is by far the most densely populated
of the
former Soviet republics (129 inhabitants per square
kilometer in
1990, compared with thirteen inhabitants per square
kilometer for
the Soviet Union as a whole), it has few large cities. The
largest and most important of these is Chisinau, the
country's
capital and its most important industrial center. Founded
in
1420, Chisinau is located in the center of the republic,
on the
Bîc (Byk, in Russian) River, and in 1990 had a population
of
676,000. The city's population is slightly more than 50
percent
ethnic Romanian, with ethnic Russians constituting
approximately
25 percent and Ukrainians 13 percent. The proportion of
ethnic
Russians and Ukrainians in the capital's population
decreased in
the years immediately after 1989 because of the emigration
resulting from Moldavia's changing political situation and
civil
unrest.
The second largest city in the republic, Tiraspol, had
a
population of 184,000 in 1990. It is located in
Transnistria and
served as the capital of the Moldavian ASSR from 1929 to
1940. It
has remained an important center of administration,
transportation, and manufacturing. In contrast to
Chisinau,
Tiraspol had a population of only some 18 percent ethnic
Romanians, with most of the remainder being ethnic
Russians (41
percent) and Ukrainians (32 percent).
Other important cities include Balti (Bel'tsy, in
Russian),
with a population of 162,000 in 1990, and Bender (or
Bendery, in
Russian; Tighina in Romanian), with a population of
132,000 in
the same year. As in Tiraspol, ethnic Romanians are in the
minority in both of these cities.
Traditionally a rural country, Moldova gradually began
changing its character under Soviet rule (see
table 7,
Appendix
A). As urban areas became the sites of new industrial jobs
and of
amenities such as clinics, the population of cities and
towns
grew. The new residents were not only ethnic Romanians who
had
moved from rural areas but also many ethnic Russians and
Ukrainians who had been recruited to fill positions in
industry
and government
(see Ethnic Composition
, this ch.)
In 1990 Moldova's divorce rate of 3.0 divorces per
1,000
population had risen from the 1987 rate of 2.7 divorces
per 1,000
population (see
table 9, Appendix A). The usual stresses
of
marriage were exacerbated by a society in which women were
expected to perform most of the housework in addition to
their
work outside the home. Compounding this were crowded
housing
conditions (with their resulting lack of privacy) and, no
doubt,
the growing political crisis, which added its own strains.
Data as of June 1995
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