European countries with a Romance language. Blue: Official language. Green: Co-official or Regionally Official language. Red: Significant Unofficial language. Yellow: Significant Unofficial Regional language.
1. The official information from the page of the '''Moldovan Ministry of Culture and Tourism''' (quote: "The majority of the population are Moldovans (Romanians), but the following national minorities live on this territory too: Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Gagauzians, Russians, Germans, Greeks, and others.").
2.Vladimir Socor in Eurasia Daily Monitor: Some six or seven million people in Romania consider themselves to be ?Moldovans? as an integral part of, not distinct from, the Romanian nation.
3.De Pal Kolsto about the Moldovans from the former Soviet republics: , National Integration and Violent Conflict in Post-Soviet Societies, p.34.("When asked if ethnic Romanians differ in any way from ethnic Moldovans, more than 80 percent of the self-proclaimed Moldovans in our survey answered in the affirmative."), Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0742518884.
4.Levinson, David, Ethnic groups worldwide: a ready reference handbook, p.66 ("Romanians number 20.9 million in Romania and 3 million in neighboring Moldova") and p.56 ("The label Moldovan (or Moldavian) indicated nationality, as ethnic Moldovans are ethnically Romanian. Romanians (Moldovans) number about three million, or 65% of the population"). Greenwood Publishing Group (1998), ISBN 1573560197 5.Paul Robert Magocsi, Historical Atlas of Central Europe: "The ethnolinguistic composition of "Moldovan" states has changed radically in the course of the twentieth century, largely because Moldova's territory basically shifted from Transnistria (before 1940) to Bessarabia (after 1945). The post-1945 Moldovan state not only witnessed a sixteenfold increase in the number of Moldovans, but also the inclusion within its borders of most of Europe's Gagauz. Because after 1945 Moldova was left with only a narrow strip of territory east of the Dniester River, the percentage of Ukrainians in the new state has decreased, although their numerical size, together with that of the Russians, has increased substantially, as a result of migration during the Soviet era to the cities and towns of Transnistria. The terminology used to describe the Romanian-speaking inhabitants has also changed. The concept of a Moldovan nationality is connected primarily with Soviet national policies. Hence, before 1940, Romanian speakers in the Moldovan A.S.S.R. and neighboring parts of the Soviet Ukraine were designated Moldovans, while in Bessarabia (under Romanian rule) they were designated Romanians. After 1940, the Romanian population of Bessarabia became Moldovans, and this term has remained in use in the current independent Moldova. It is not clear, however, how the inhabitants understand the concept "Moldovan": as a regional name for Romanians, as a nationality distinct from Romanian, as a name to designate a citizen of Moldova, or some combination of the above.""
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