DEMOGRAPHIC SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The paper presents a brief description of the main demographic processes in the country over the last decades and their influence on the population size and structure. Massive migration of the working population is the main cause of the population ageing process and together with the negative natural growth leads to the depopulation process in the country that in the nearby future will only intensify. The situation is complicated by the absence of the reliable official statistics about the international migration and hence the absence of the credible official population data. Instead of the official population data, we rely on the alternative population estimates