Population
The population before World War II consisted of Romanians (including Moldovans), Ukrainians (including Ruthenians), Russians, Bulgarians, Gagauz, Germans, and Jews. According to the census data of the Russian Empire, during the 19th century the ethnic Romanians decreased from 86% (1817) to 47.6% (1897).
Russian Census, 1817 (Total: 96,526 families, 482,630 inhabitants):
- 83,848 Romanian families (86%)
- 6,000 Ruthenian families (6.5%)
- 3,826 Jewish families (1.5%)
- 1,200 Lipovan families (1.5%)
- 640 Greek families (0.7%)
- 530 Armenian families (0.6%)
- 482 Bulgarian and Gagauz families (0.5%)
Russian Census, 1856 (Total: 990,274 inhabitants)
- 736,000 Romanians (74%)
- 119,000 Ukrainians (12%)
- 79,000 Jews (8%)
- 47,000 Bulgarians and Gagauz (5%)
- 24,000 Germans (2.4%)
- 11,000 Romani (1.1%)
- 6,000 Russians (0.6%)
Russian data, 1889 (Total: 1,628,867 inhabitants)
Russian Census, 1897 (Total 1,935,412 inhabitants). By language:
- 920,919 Moldavians and Romanians (47.6%)
- 379,698 Ukrainians (19.6%)
- 228,168 Jews (11.8%)
- 155,774 Russians (8%)
- 103,225 Bulgarians (5.3%)
- 60,026 Germans (3.1%)
- 55,790 Turks (Gagauzes) (2.9%)
Some scholars, however, believed in regard to the 1897 census that " the census enumerator generally has instructions to count everyone who understands the state language as being of that nationality, no matter what his everyday speech may be.", thus a number of Moldavians (Romanians) might have been registered as Russians.
According to N. Durnovo, the population of Bessarabia in 1900 was (Total: 1,935,000 inhabitants):
| Hotin County | 89,000 | 161,000 | 54,000 | 3,000 | 307,000 | |
| Soroca County | 156,000 | 28,000 | 31,000 | 4,000 | 219,000 | |
| Bălţi County | 154,000 | 27,000 | 17,000 | 14,000 | 212,000 | |
| Orhei County | 176,000 | 10,000 | 26,000 | 1,000 | 213,000 | |
| Lăpuşna County | 198,000 | 19,000 | 53,000 | 10,000 | 280,000 | |
| Tighina County | 103,000 | 32,000 | 16,000 | 36,000 | 8,000 | 195,000 |
| Cahul and Ismail1 | 109,000 | 53,000 | 11,000 | 27,000 | 44,000 | 244,000 |
| Cetatea Albă County | 106,000 | 48,000 | 11,000 | 52,500 | 47,500 | 265,000 |
| Total | 1,092,000 | 378,000 | 219,000 | 247,000 | 1,935,000 | |
| % | 56.5% | 19.5% | 11.5% | 12.5% | 100% | |
Romanian Census, 1930 (Total: 2,864,662 inhabitants)
| County | Romanians | Ukrainians | Russians1 | Jews | Bulgarians | Gagauz | Germans | others2 | Total inhabitants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotin County | 137,348 | 163,267 | 53,453 | 35,985 | 26 | 2 | 323 | 2,026 | 392,430 |
| Soroca County | 232,720 | 26,039 | 25,736 | 29,191 | 69 | 13 | 417 | 2,183 | 316,368 |
| Bălţi County | 270,942 | 29,288 | 46,569 | 31,695 | 66 | 8 | 1,623 | 6,530 | 386,721 |
| Orhei County | 243,936 | 2,469 | 10,746 | 18,999 | 87 | 1 | 154 | 2,890 | 279,282 |
| Lăpuşna County | 326,455 | 2,732 | 29,770 | 50,013 | 712 | 37 | 2,823 | 7,079 | 419,621 |
| Tighina County | 163,673 | 9,047 | 44,989 | 16,845 | 19,599 | 39,345 | 10,524 | 2,570 | 306,592 |
| Cahul County | 100,714 | 619 | 14,740 | 4,434 | 28,565 | 35,299 | 8,644 | 3,948 | 196,963 |
| Ismail County | 72,020 | 10,655 | 66,987 | 6,306 | 43,375 | 15,591 | 983 | 9,592 | 225,509 |
| Cetatea Albă County | 62,949 | 70,095 | 58,922 | 11,390 | 71,227 | 7,876 | 55,598 | 3,119 | 341,176 |
| Total | 1,610,757 | 314,211 | 351,912 | 204,858 | 163,726 | 98,172 | 81,089 | 39,937 | 2,864,662 |
| % | 56.23% | 10.97% | 12.28% | 7.15% | 5.72% | 3.43% | 2.83% | 1.39% | 100% |
When?: Total: 2,995,821
- Romanians 1,735,000
- Ukrainians 315,000
- Russians 352,000
- Jews 210,000
- Bulgarians 164,000
- Gagauz 99,000
- Germans 82,000
- others ?
Data of the Romanian census 1939 was not completely processed before the Soviet occupation. Estimates of the total population at 3.2 million.
Soviet census, 1979: 69% of Moldavian SSR's population were Moldovan, and 98% of them declared Moldovan language (Romanian language) as their native language.
Soviet census, 1989: There were 88,419 Bessarabian Bulgarians according to official data from Republic of Moldova
Estimate, 1992: 4,305 immigrants to Israel from the Republic of Moldova constituted 7.1 percent of all the immigrants to Israel from the former U.S.S.R. in this year.
Moldovan census, 2004: There were 65,072 Bessarabian Bulgarians according to the census not including Bulgarians in Transnistria.
Read more about this topic: Bessarabia
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