Moldova

Moldova is a country in Europe.

It has no sea coast. Two big rivers run along its sides. There are rolling hills, green forests and many farms. The capital city is called Chișinău.

Moldova is a small country in eastern Europe with no coastline. Ukraine wraps around it on the north, east and south, and Romania lies to the west. Most of the country sits between two winding rivers: the Prut in the west and the Dniester in the east.

The land is a hilly plain, cut by river valleys and gullies, with steep forested slopes in the central hills. Its soil is very fertile, and fields, orchards and vineyards cover much of the country. The capital, Chișinău, is in the south-central part.

Moldova is a landlocked country in the northeastern corner of the Balkan region, bounded by Ukraine to the north, east and south and by Romania to the west. The bulk of it lies between the meandering Prut and Dniester rivers, east of the great arc of the Carpathian Mountains. It is underlain mostly by deep sedimentary rocks on the southwestern edge of the East European Plain; harder crystalline rocks come to the surface only in the north.

Its surface is a hilly plain averaging 147 m above sea level, cut by a dense network of valleys, ravines and gullies. Chernozem, a rich black soil, covers three-fourths of the country. The capital, Chișinău, lies in the south-central part. Formerly known as Bessarabia, the territory declared independence as the Republic of Moldova in August 1991 and joined the United Nations in 1992.

Moldova has soft, rolling hills.

The soil in the fields is black and very rich. Many plants grow well in it. Big rivers flow all the way to the Black Sea. Summers are warm, and winters have only a little snow.

Moldova has no tall mountains. In the middle of the country are the forested Codri Hills, and the highest point, Bălănești Hill, is only about 429 meters high. The north has a flat plain called the Bălți steppe, and the south has the wide Bugeac Plain.

The soil is the real treasure: rich black earth called chernozem covers about three-quarters of the land. All of Moldova's rivers drain south to the Black Sea. The Dniester is the biggest, swollen each spring by snowmelt from the Carpathian Mountains. Summers are warm, winters are fairly mild, and the south can have long dry spells.

Moldova's relief is gentle. The central Codri Hills average 350 to 400 m, rising to Bălănești Hill at 429 m (Britannica), and are cut by deep valleys, ravines and landslide-scoured hollows; steep forested slopes cover much of this upland. The north is the level Bălți steppe (150 to 200 m) with uplands about twice as high, including the eroded Medobory-Toltry limestone ridges along the Prut, and the south is the gullied Bugeac Plain.

All rivers drain south to the Black Sea, but only about a tenth are longer than 10 km. The fast-flowing Dniester is navigable almost throughout the country; the Prut joins the Danube at Moldova's southern tip. Groundwater, which includes more than 2,000 natural springs, is widely used for the water supply. Chernozem covers three-fourths of the land, though Soviet-era overuse of fertilizers and pesticides contaminated soil and groundwater. The climate is warm and moderately continental: annual means of about 8 °C in the north and 10 °C in the south, July means of about 19 and 23 °C, and roughly 500 mm of precipitation a year, which can double in some years and fall far short in others.

Moldova has oak forests.

Wild boars and wolves live there. Herons and wild geese rest in the marshes by the rivers. Many kinds of fish swim in the rivers.

Forests cover the north and center of Moldova, especially in the Codri Hills. The most common trees are hornbeam and oak, along with linden, maple, wild pear and wild cherry. The south was once a grassy steppe, but most of it is now farmland.

Wild boars, wolves, badgers, wildcats, roe deer, hares and foxes live in Moldova. The marshy lower parts of the rivers shelter wild geese, ducks and herons, and white-tailed sea eagles live in the riverside forests. Moldova's fish include carp, perch, bream and pike.

Northern and central Moldova is a forest zone and a steppe belt crosses the south. Britannica counts more than 1,500 plant species. Forests cover about 3,000 km², chiefly in the Codri Hills; hornbeam and oak are the most common trees, with beech at the sources of the Ichel and Bâcu rivers. In the early 19th century about a third of the country was forested, but a growing population cleared much of it, bringing soil erosion, flooding and loss of wildlife; large reforestation projects have run since the early 1990s.

Mammals include wild boar, wolves, badgers, wildcats, ermines, martens and polecats, with roe deer, hares, foxes and muskrats of commercial importance; fallow deer and spotted deer were introduced and are now common. The marshy lower reaches of the rivers are sanctuaries for wild geese, migratory ducks and herons, and white-tailed sea eagles live in the floodplain forests. Lush meadows and reed beds line the floodplains of the Dniester and the Prut.

About 2.4 million people were counted in Moldova in 2024.

Most people speak Romanian. Many people also speak Russian. Farms grow lots of grapes, fruit and vegetables. On March 1, people give red and white threads to welcome spring.

About 2.4 million people were counted in Moldova in 2024, and more of them live in the countryside than in towns. Most people speak Romanian, which is also called Moldovan, and many people use Russian as a second language. Ukrainians, Russians, Gagauz, Bulgarians and Roma are among Moldova's smaller communities. The Gagauz have their own Turkic language.

Grapes are the most important of the crops grown for processing in factories, and farmers also grow sunflowers, wheat, corn and fruit. On March 1, many people make and wear a red and white thread called mărțișor to celebrate the start of spring. Weavers in Moldova and Romania also make wall carpets with detailed patterns, a craft UNESCO lists as shared heritage.

The 2024 census counted 2,409,200 usual residents: 1,290,200 in rural areas and 1,119,000 in towns (National Bureau of Statistics); a preliminary estimate for 1 January 2026 was 2,365,600. About three-fourths of the people are ethnic Moldovans, with smaller Ukrainian, Russian, Gagauz, Roma and Bulgarian communities. The Gagauz have lived on the Bugeac Plain since the late 18th century and speak a Turkic language, official in the autonomous area of Gagauzia. The state language is Romanian: the 1994 constitution called it Moldovan, and in 2013 the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of Romanian; the script changed from Cyrillic to Latin in 1989, and bilingualism with Russian is common. Most people are Eastern Orthodox Christians, with smaller Muslim and Jewish communities.

Grapes are the most important industrial crop. UNESCO lists two traditions Moldova shares with neighbors: wall-carpet weaving with Romania (2016), now valued mainly as art, and the spring practices of March 1 (2017), when a red and white thread is made, given and worn.