Chisinau is the capital and largest city. It is situated in the middle of the country on the river Bâc. Nearly a third of the country’s population lives in the metro area.
A large portion of present day Moldovan territory became a province of the Russian Empire in 1812, and then unified with Romania in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I. This territory was then incorporated into the Soviet Union at the close of World War II. Although Moldova has been independent from the Soviet Union since 1991, Russian forces have remained on Moldovan territory east of the Dnister River in the breakaway region of Transnistria.
Communists managed to retain significant influence in Moldova after the Soviet collapse. They gained control of parliament from 2001-09, which ultimately ended with election-related violent protests and a rerun of parliamentary elections in 2009. A series of pro-Europe ruling coalitions governed Moldova from 2010-19, but pro-Russia Igor Dodon won the presidency in 2016 and his Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova won a plurality in the legislative election in 2019. Pro-EU reformist candidate Maia Sandu defeated Dodon in his reelection bid in November 2020 and the Party of Action and Solidarity, which Ms. Sandu founded in 2015, won a parliamentary majority in an early legislative election in July 2021.
SGA has just begun working in Moldova as of late 2023, and our work with the faithful evangelical churches there is developing. SGA partners supported Summer Camp ministry for children, and we are prayerfully looking forward to additional ministry expansion in the months ahead.
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POPULATION
3,250,532
ETHNIC COMPOSITION
75.1%
Moldovan
7%
Romanian
6.6%
Ukrainian
4.6%
Gagauz
4.1%
Russian
1.9%
Bulgarian
0.8%
Other
RELIGIOUS COMPOSITION
90.1%
Orthodox
2.6%
Other Christian
0.1%
Other
<0.1%
Agnostic
0.2%
Atheist
6.9%
Unspecified