Moldovans

Moldovans

Moldoveni
Map of the Moldovan diaspora
Total population
c. 2.9 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Moldova  2,023,069 (including 135,957 Moldovans from Transnistria)[2]
Other countries
Romania	285,000[3]
Ukraine	258,619[4]
Russia	77,509[5][6]
Italy	188,923[7]
Germany	139,000[8]
Poland	37,338[9]
France	26,300[10][11]
Spain	17,426[12]
Kazakhstan	14,245[13]
Portugal	13,586[14]
Turkey	13,472[15]
Greece	9,920[16]
Canada	8,050[17]
United States	7,859[18]
Czech Republic	5,260[19]
Belarus	3,465[20]
United Kingdom	3,417[21]
Latvia	2,284[22]
Languages
Romanian (also referred to as Moldovan)
Religion
Orthodox Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Romanians

Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians (Romanian: moldoveni [moldoˈvenʲ], Moldovan Cyrillic: молдовень), are a Romance ethnic group who speak the Moldavian dialect of the Romanian language, locally also referred to as the Moldovan language. They form the largest ethnic group of the Republic of Moldova (75.1% of the population as of 2014) and a significant minority in Romania, Italy, Ukraine and Russia. There is an ongoing controversy, in part involving the linguistic definition of ethnicity, over whether Moldovans' self-identification constitutes an ethnic group distinct and separate from Romanians, or a subset. The extent of self-identification as Romanians in the Republic of Moldova varies (2.1% of the population self-identified as Romanians in 2004 and 7% self-identified as Romanians in 2014).

The variant Moldavians is also 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 their ethnic identity. In Romania, natives of Western Moldavia identifying with the term generally declare Romanian ethnicity,^[23] while the Moldovans from Bessarabia (the Republic of Moldova included) are usually called "Bessarabians" (Romanian: basarabeni).