Over the last 10 years, Moldova’s population has decreased by 14%, reaching approximately 2.4 million people. The main reason is migration, including labor migration of men, who more often go abroad to work.
Migration outflow and natural population loss, according to some calculations, led to the fact that the country was “depopulated” by 45 thousand people. And the main burden (35 thousand) fell on emigrants. But this is not what worries experts.
Many experts believe that there is nothing terrible in the very mobility of the population, which enjoys the benefits of visa-free regime and dual citizenship. First, the current demographic situation in Moldova is not unique and does not particularly stand out against the background of other post-socialist countries in Eastern Europe.
The majority of post-socialist European states usually have negative or close to zero net migration coefficient. Secondly, according to previous surveys, Moldovan emigrants do not lose touch with their homeland and are at least verbally ready to return under suitable conditions, which the country is unable to create for them.
But more and more often there is talk about a change in the migration concept – from mobile and potentially returnable (“pendulum”) emigration from the country is increasingly associated with the theme of “non-return”, when families are reunited abroad and the diaspora there “puts down roots”, losing physical connection with the homeland, and thus with the local labor market.
And the most alarming thing is that it is noted that not only the concept, but also the structure of migration flows has changed, which is not replenished either by natural increase or immigration of labor resources into the country. According to the NBS, of the total number of emigrants in 2024, the largest share (about 39%) is occupied by people aged 20-39 years. This is followed by the population under the age of 19, with a share of about 26%.
The published values of net migration (the last update of the NBS provides 2023 data) confirm the trend in recent years of decreasing emigration flows abroad and a similar increase in immigration flows. Nevertheless, net migration of populations records a negative value – minus 32.6 thousand people. Which means that the number of those who left the territory (emigrants) exceeds the number of those who arrived (immigrants).
It should be noted that statistics does not have more updated information due to limited sources. Net migration for 2023 was estimated using data for 2022, 2023 and 2024. Accordingly, data on international migration of the resident population for 2024 will be calculated if information on state border crossings in 2025 is available.
According to the data of the Main Migration Inspectorate, in 2024, 38,125 people benefited from humanitarian protection on the territory of our country, which is 34.6% more than in the previous year.
Meanwhile, internal migration from rural to urban regions of the country is increasing and can “brighten up” for a while the shortage of personnel in non-agricultural activities.
In 2024, about 17.2 thousand people will officially change their place of residence within the country. Internal migrants are mainly people of working age (93.6%), most of them aged 25-49 years. Portrait of arrivals/departures: 54.8% are women and 45.2% are men.
Last year, due to internal migration, the population of cities increased by 5.5 thousand people to the detriment of rural settlements. The largest number of internal migrants went to large cities. Thus, Chisinau municipality accounted for 48.8% of the total number of arrivals, followed by Balti municipality with 3.4%.
