Moldovan people
| Moldoveni | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| c. 2.9 million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Republic of Moldova
|
2,245,693 (inluding 177, 635 Moldovans from Transnistria) |
 Ukraine
|
258,619 |
 Russia
|
156,400 |
 Italy
|
142,583 |
 Spain
|
17,426 |
 Romania
|
15,000 |
 Kazakhstan
|
14,245 |
 Portugal
|
13,586 |
 Greece
|
9,920 |
 Canada
|
8,050 |
 United States
|
7,859 |
 Belarus
|
3,465 |
 Latvia
|
2,284 |
| Languages | |
| Primarily Romanian | |
| Religion | |
| Primarily Ortodox Christianity (small Catholic and Evangelical minorities) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Romanians, Other Eastern Romance peoples | |
Moldovans (in Moldovan/Romanian moldoveni pronounced [moldoˈvenʲ]; Moldovan Cyrillic: Молдовень) are the largest population group of the Republic of Moldova (73.7% of the population), and a significant minority in Ukraine and Russia. Under the variant Moldavians, the term may also be used to refer to all inhabitants of the territory of historical Principality of Moldavia, currently divided among Romania (47.5%), Moldova (30.5%) and Ukraine (22%), regardless of ethnic identity.
This article refers to the Romanian language-speaking population native to the Republic of Moldova, the historical Bessarabia and diaspora originating from these regions.
According to Miron Costin, a prominent chronicler from the 17th century Moldavia, the inhabitants of the Principality of Moldavia spoke Romanian and called themselves "Moldovans", but also "Romanians" which, he notes, comes from "romanus". Also, the Slavic neighbours called Moldovans "Vlachs" or "Volokhs", a term equally used to refer to all native Romance speakers from Eastern Europe and the Balkan peninsula.
As the ethnonym "Romanian" was gaining more and more popularity throughout Western Moldavia and Bukovina during the 19th century, its dissemination in Bessarabia, a more backward and rural province of the Russian Empire at the time, was welcomed mostly by the Romanian-oriented intellectuals, while the majority of the rural population continued to use the old self-identification "Moldovans".
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Wikipedia