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MoldovaHealth
In July 1994, Moldova's population was estimated at
4,473,033, with an average annual growth rate of 0.38
percent. In
1992 the population's birth rate was 16.1 per 1,000
population
(compared with Romania's fourteen per 1,000), the death
rate was
10.2 per 1,000 (the same as Romania's), and the rate of
natural
population increase was 0.7 percent per year (0.9 percent
for
Romania) (see
table 8, Appendix A). The instability that
had
occurred throughout the Soviet Union at the time of its
dissolution had a significant impact on these figures. By
1992,
the birth rate had fallen from 18.9 in 1989 to 16.1 per
1,000,
mortality had increased from 9.2 in 1989 to 10.2 per
1,000, and
the natural population increase had declined from 1.0 in
1989 to
0.6 percent per year. In 1992 the infant mortality rate
was
thirty-five per 1,000 live births (compared with Romania's
twenty-two per 1,000 live births). In 1989 the size of the
average Moldovan family was 3.4 persons.
In 1991 about 28 percent of the population was under
fifteen
years of age, and almost 13 percent was over sixty-five
years of
age
(see
fig. 19). Life expectancy in 1994 was sixty-five
years
for males and seventy-two years for females.
Although the Soviet government had built health care
facilities in the Moldavian SSR, modern equipment and
facilities
were in short supply in the early 1990s. In 1990 there
were 129
hospital beds and forty doctors per 10,000 inhabitants.
The 1991
state budget allocated approximately 12 percent of the
total
budget to health care, most of which was provided to
citizens
free of charge.
The leading causes of death in Moldova are
cardiovascular
diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, and accidents.
Other
major health problems are high levels of alcohol
consumption and
illnesses resulting from the extensive and indiscriminate
use of
herbicides and pesticides
(see Environmental Concerns
, this ch.).
Data as of June 1995
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