POPULAȚIA RURALĂ DIN BUCOVINA ȘI BASARABIA, LA HOTARUL SECOLELOR XIX – XX
Rural Population in Bukovina and Bessarabia at the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: In Bukovina and Bessarabia, the ethnic and linguistic structure of the population differed substantially between urban and rural environments. During the Austrian rule in Bukovina and the Russian rule in Bessarabia, the ethnic composition of the population changed drastically in the rural areas of these two provinces. In 1910, the villages in Bukovina were inhabited by 604 695 people, according to their language of conversation, with the majority being Ukrainians (44,8%) and Romanians (38%), followed by Germans with Jews (12,9%), Poles (2,5%), and Hungarians (1,7%). The northern and western parts of Bukovina were densely populated by Ukrainians, Romanians were the majority in the central and southern provinces, villages with Germans, Hungarians, Poles, or Lipovans existed mainly in central and southern Bukovina. In the rural environment of Bukovina, 99,1% of Hungarians, 92,5% of Lipovans, 91,7% of Ukrainians, 87,3% of Romanians, approximately 58% of Germans, 48,7% of Poles, and approximately 46,5% of Jews lived.In the rural localities of Bessarabia, out of a total of 1 642 080 inhabitants (in 1897), 53,5% were Romanians (Moldovans), followed by Ukrainians (20,3%), Jews (7,2%), Bulgarians (5,6%), Russians (5,1%), Germans (3,5%), and Gagauz people (3,4%). In villages and towns, the majority of Gagauz people (99,4%), Germans (96,5%), Moldovans (95,5%), Roma (94,8%), Bulgarians (88,8%), and Ukrainians (87,8%) lived in Bessarabia. Romanians formed the overwhelming majority of the rural population in the counties of Chisinau (91,6%), Orhei (80,9%), Bălți (71%), Soroca (66,4%), and Bender (52,5%), while in Ismail County, they constituted 46,4%. Only in Hotin County, the majority of rural residents were Ukrainians (55,3%), followed by Moldovans (25%) and Jews (13,4%). At the end of the 19th century, in the rural localities of southern Bessarabia (Akkerman, Bender, and Ismail counties), Moldovans constituted a relative majority of 36,7%, followed by Ukrainians (17,5%), Bulgarians (15,6%), Gagauz people (9,5%), Germans (9,1%), and Russians (7,5%).

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