2004 Moldovan Census

The 2004 Republic of Moldova Census was carried October 5–October 12, 2004. The separatist Transnistria failed to come into an agreement with the Chişinău government and carried out its census during November 11–November 18; the results of the Transnistrian census 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.

Census problems
According to a May 19 2005 article carried by the Moldova Azi news agency, a group of international census experts described the Moldovan census as "generally conducted in a professional manner", while remarking that that "a few topics… were potentially more problematic". Among the problematic topics: With respect to these matters, especially the latter, 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.
 * 1) The census includes at least some Moldovans who had been living abroad over one year at the time of the census.
 * 2) The entries referring to the nationality and spoken language created confusion among the respondents. Therefore, the precision of numbers about nationality/ethnicity and language was questioned. Some enumerators apparently encouraged respondents to declare that they were "Moldovan" rather than "Romanian", and even within a single family there may have been confusion about these terms.

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&mdash;where almost 17% of Moldova’s population live&mdash;may not be taken considered in common with the other data, since it was gathered out without international monitoring.