2004 Moldovan census

The 2004 Republic of Moldova Census was carried October 5–October 12, 2004. The breakaway republic of Transnistria failed to come into an agreement with the Chişinău government and carried out its own census during November 11–November 18. The results of census in Transnistria are questioned.

Moldova's previous census was performed in 1989, when the territory was part of the Soviet Union.

The census was delayed several times and had difficulties because of political problems, ethnic tensions and a lack of resources.

Terminology

The questionnaires used the term "Nationality", but the sense of this term must be understood as a synonym of ethnicity, as nation can be defined as a grouping based on cultural self-determination rather than on relations with a state. In the context of former Soviet Union, nationality is often used as translation of the Russian terms (национальность / natsional'nost) used for ethnic groups and local affiliations within those (former) states.

Criticism

According to a May 19 2005 article carried by the Moldova Azi news agency, the group of experts from the international census observation Mission to the Republic of Moldova described the Moldovan census as "generally conducted in a professional manner", but consider that "there were a few topics in the census that were potentially more problematic". These were:

1. The expert group considered that that released total figure may actually be somewhat higher than the real population size of the country because it includes at least some Moldovans who had been living abroad over one year at the time of the census and who had been enumerated in the census. According to the international standards for censuses, these individuals should not have been included in the count of the total population size of the country. However, the expects also remarked that some undercount of the population can also be expected in any census operations, and that this might reduce the effect of the above-mentioned overcount.
2. The expert group concluded that the items in the questionnaire dealing with nationality and language proved to be the most sensitive ones, particularly with reference to the recording of responses to these questions as being "Moldovan" or "Romanian". Seven of the ten teams of observers had reported cases where enumerators encouraged respondents to declare that they were Moldovan rather than Romanian. Moreover, the reports from the field also showed that even within the same family there often seemed to be some confusion about these terms. Since problems of this type had been reported by the teams of observers in many different parts of the country, and in fairly large number, the expert group concluded that special care would be required by the National Statistics Bureau to enable it to assess the quality of the data on nationality/ethnicity.

The expert group recommended that the Moldovan National Bureau of Statistics carry out an evaluation study, offered their assistance in doing so, and indicated their intention of further studying the matter themselves.

Vitalie Valcov, the then director of the Department of Statistics and Sociology, stated that Transnistria did not comply with the international recommendations for carrying out a census and, thus, the data collected in Transnistria — where almost 17% of Moldova’s population live — may not be taken together with the data from the rest of Moldova, since it was gathered without international monitoring. Therefore, all census figures do not include territories that are under control of Transnistrian authorities.

External links

• Template:Ro icon, Template:Ru icon, Template:En icon DEMOGRAPHIC, NATIONAL, LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS; POPULATION CENSUS 2004 (.doc file)
• Template:Ro icon, Template:Ru icon, Template:En icon 2004 official census results (list of all available census documents in .xls and .doc format)