An American population geographer and specialist on demographic trends in the former Soviet republics examines the results of the first post-Soviet census of Moldova (the poorest country of Europe), conducted in 2004 and released years later. He reviews major national- and regional-level changes in population size, urban/rural distribution, and ethnicity since the last Soviet-era census in 1989 and reconciles the two sets of data. A major factor complicating the analysis is the de facto secession in 1992 of an eastern region of the country, now known as the Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Republic (PMR), which prompted a brief war and subsequent uneasy ceasefire later that year. However, a population enumeration conducted in the PMR, also in 2004 (and released later), facilitates the identification of overall demographic trends in the region, which may experience the involuntary return of jobless migrant workers from Russia and the EU due to the 2008/2009 global recession. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: J110, O180, R230. 2 figures, 2 tables, 49 references.