Depopularea Republicii Moldova în contextul declinului populației din Europa Centrala și de Est

Summary In recent decades, the population of the Republic of Moldova has been steadily declining, and this trend will persist in the coming decades. Compared to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Republic of Moldova is most affected by depopulation. The present study expands evidence on depopulation in the Republic of Moldova based on the demographic projection developed by Centre for Demographic Research for 2019-2040. The results show that in the coming decades, the demographic decline would continue at a fast pace, increasing from 1.6% to 2.3% annually. The population number may decrease with 34.5% by 2040. The population decline caused by external migration will be 776.9 thousand. The population age structure will change significantly. The emigration of younth has an important negative effect and leads to a decrease in the number of working age youth. Meanwhile the return of 50+ year old migrants from abroad leads to an increase in the proportion of older people in the population as a whole. It was concluded that the effects of depopulation are much more unfavorable than those associated with population aging. Being determined by mass migration depopulation is associated with the loss of human capital, the negative impact on quality of life, social cohesion and socio-economic development.