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Updates: 

On 2014-11-03, ISO issued an update to ISO 3166-2, changing the name of Tighina to "Bender [Tighina]."

Transnistria is de facto independent, but is included in Moldova by ISO standard 3166. It uses Russian as the main language on its official websites, and the Cyrillic alphabet for its version of the Moldovan language. Internally, its name is Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublika (Pridnestrovie). The name has political implications: Transnistria means "land across the Dniester", viz. from Moldova; Pridnestrovie simply means "land by the Dniester". Its capital is Tiraspol, and it is divided into seven administrative-territorial units, as listed here. Bender and Dubossary correspond to divisions of Moldova, and may be partitioned between the two territories.

Unit	Population
Bender	105,010
Dubossary	37,449
Grigoriopol	48,000
Kamenka	27,284
Rybnitsa	82,699
Slobozya	95,742
Tiraspol	159,163
Total	555,347
Population: 2004-11-13 census.

 

The result of the reorganization of Moldovan territory in 2003 is reflected in Newsletter II-2, an update to the ISO 3166-2 standard, dated 2010-06-30, and in FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, dated 2006-03-23.

Change Notice 8 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-06-28. It changes the name of Dubăsari to Stîngă Nistrului, which is also the name used for it in the ISO update. I've concluded that the name Dubăsari is obsolete.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-2 was published on 2002-05-21. It completely revises the list of subdivisions of Moldova. It shows Moldova divided into one unitate teritorială autonoma (autonomous territory), one municipiu (city), one unitatea teritorială (territorial unit), and nine judeţul (counties). The header for the Moldova entry incorrectly states that there are ten counties; the 10 is corrected to 9 in ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-3, published on 2002-08-20. Taraclia county is not shown in Newsletter Number I-2, but is added in Newsletter Number I-4, published on 2002-12-10.

Change Notice 4 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2000-02-25. It shows Moldova divided into ten judeţul (counties) and one unitate teritorială autonoma (autonomous territorial unit). If they are the same divisions as those predicted by Tass in source [6], the Dniester region would have to be the same as Dubăsari county.

I have seen a series of Moldovan statistical yearbooks. Source [1] clearly shows that the divisions of Moldova on the primary level were ten counties, one city, one autonomous territorial unit, and one other unit which is verbosely described as Unităţile administrativ-teritoriale din partea stîngă a Nistrului, cărora li se pot atribui forme şi condiţii speciale de autonomie (Administrative-territorial units from the left side of the Nistru (Dniester) River, which could be entitled to special formations and conditions of autonomy). I accordingly decided to split Chisinau city from Chisinau county (former HASC code MD.CE) in the table for 1999 under Change history.

Country overview: 

Short name	MOLDOVA
ISO code	MD
FIPS code	MD
Language	Romanian (ro)
Time zone	+2 ~
Capital	Chişinău

 

Russia acquired the eastern part of the principality of Moldavia from the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. It became the guberniya of Bessarabia, consisting of all the territory between the Prum and Dniestr Rivers east of about 26°45' East. Bessarabia proclaimed its independence on 1918-01-24, in the chaos of World War I. It united with Romania two months later. The merger was ratified by the Paris Peace Conference in 1920. The Soviet Union asserted a claim to the territory. Unable to prevail, it established a Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (capital Balta from 1924 to 1929, then Tiraspol) on the eastern side of the Dniestr. After the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union and Germany carved up the intervening territory. In 1940, the Soviet Union moved in and annexed Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina from Romania. On 1940-08-02, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was created. It contained about 28,000 sq. km. of Bessarabian territory and 3,400 sq. km. of the Moldavian A.S.S.R. The remaining pieces - Northern Bukovina, 4,900 sq. km. of the Moldavian A.S.S.R., and 17,600 sq. km. of Bessarabia, including the districts of Belgorod Dniestrovskiy, Hertza, Hotin, and Izmail - became part of the Ukraine. Although Romania re-occupied this area during the war, the Soviet Union took it back in 1944. Moldavia once again declared independence on 1991-08-27, taking the name Moldova. More recently, the part of Moldova east of the Dniestr has formed a breakaway government, Transnistria, which has not been recognized by any other country.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Republikken Moldova (formal)
2. Dutch: Moldavië, Republiek Moldavië (formal)
3. English: Republic of Moldova (formal), Moldavia (obsolete)
4. Finnish: Moldova
5. French: Moldavie f, République f de Moldova (formal)
6. German: Moldawien n, Moldau f (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Moldavía
8. Italian: Moldavia f, Repubblica Moldova (formal)
9. Norwegian: Moldova, Republikken Moldova (formal)
10. Portuguese: Moldávia, Moldova f, República f da Moldávia f (formal)
11. Romanian: Republica Moldoveneasca (formal)
12. Russian: Молдавия, Молдавская Республика (formal), Республика Молдова (formal)
13. Spanish: Moldavia f
14. Swedish: Moldavien
15. Turkish: Moldova Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from Molda River (not to be confused with the Moldau)

Primary subdivisions: 

Moldova is divided into 32 raioane (sing. raion: districts), three municipiu (city), one unitate teritorială autonomă (autonomous territory), and one unitatea teritorială (territorial unit).

Division	Typ	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Code	Population	Capital
Anenii Noi	d	MD.AN	AN	MD59	10	81,719	Anenii Noi
Bălţi	m	MD.BT	BA	MD60	03	127,673	Bălţi
Basarabeasca	d	MD.BA	BS	MD61	12	28,978	Basarabeasca
Bender	m	MD.BD	BD	MD62	05		Bender
Briceni	d	MD.BR	BR	MD63	14	77,978	Briceni
Cahul	d	MD.CH	CA	MD64	17	119,201	Cahul
Călăraşi	d	MD.CA	CL	MD66	25	75,167	Călăraşi
Cantemir	d	MD.CN	CT	MD65	21	60,008	Cantemir
Căuşeni	d	MD.CU	CS	MD67	27	90,616	Căuşeni
Chişinău	m	MD.CV	CU	MD57	01	716,530	Chişinău
Cimişlia	d	MD.CS	CM	MD68	29	60,936	Cimişlia
Criuleni	d	MD.CR	CR	MD69	31	72,259	Criuleni
Donduşeni	d	MD.DO	DO	MD70	34	46,437	Donduşeni
Drochia	d	MD.DR	DR	MD71	36	87,083	Drochia
Dubăsari	d	MD.DB	DU	MD72	38	34,004	Cocieri
Edineţ	d	MD.ED	ED	MD73	41	81,384	Edineţ
Făleşti	d	MD.FA	FA	MD74	43	89,915	Faleşti
Floreşti	d	MD.FL	FL	MD75	45	89,406	Floreşti
Găgăuzia	a	MD.GA	GA	MD51	96	155,781	Comrat
Glodeni	d	MD.GL	GL	MD76	48	60,968	Glodeni
Hînceşti	d	MD.HI	HI	MD77	53	119,765	Hînceşti
Ialoveni	d	MD.IA	IA	MD78	55	97,759	Ialoveni
Leova	d	MD.LE	LE	MD79	57	51,161	Leova
Nisporeni	d	MD.NI	NI	MD80	60	64,945	Nisporeni
Ocniţa	d	MD.OC	OC	MD81	62	56,706	Ocniţa
Orhei	d	MD.OH	OR	MD82	64	116,296	Orhei
Rezina	d	MD.RZ	RE	MD83	67	48,112	Rezina
Rîşcani	d	MD.RS	RI	MD84	71	69,415	Rîşcani
Sîngerei	d	MD.SI	SI	MD85	74	87,158	Sîngerei
Şoldăneşti	d	MD.SD	SD	MD86	83	42,216	Şoldăneşti
Soroca	d	MD.SO	SO	MD87	78	95,015	Soroca
Ştefan Vodă	d	MD.SV	SV	MD88	85	70,620	Ştefan Voda
Străşeni	d	MD.ST	ST	MD89	80	88,937	Străşeni
Taraclia	d	MD.TA	TA	MD90	87	43,151	Taraclia
Teleneşti	d	MD.TE	TE	MD91	89	70,022	Teleneşti
Transnistria	t	MD.DU	SN	MD58		555,347	Dubăsari
Ungheni	d	MD.UG	UN	MD92	92	110,750	Ungheni
37 divisions						3,943,418
Typ: d = district, m = city, a = autonomous territory, t = territorial unit HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Code: Identification codes from CUATM2003, a Moldovan statistics standard. Population: 2004-10-05 census preliminary results (source [3]). Population of Transnistria from 2004-11-13 census.

 

Note: I reused HASC codes from earlier divisions of the same name and type. I can't guarantee that the area covered is exactly the same in all cases.

Postal codes: 

Moldova uses four-digit postal codes. Moldovan addresses can be identified by prefixing the postal codes with "MD-".

Further subdivisions:

According to source [1], the secondary subdivisions of Moldova were 15 municipalities, 50 cities, 66 localities in the frame of cities, 663 villages (communes), and 886 localities in the frame of villages (communes), for a total of 1,680 secondary subdivisions.

Territorial extent: 

The UN LOCODE page  for Moldova lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

Chişinău: Hungarian Kis-Jenö: Little Eugene, name of a fortress
Orhei: Hungarian varhely: citadel
Soroca: Theory 1: Romanian sarac: poor. Theory 2: From sroc: a feudal obligation.

Change history: 

1. 1940-08-02: Part of Bessarabia taken from Romania and merged with part of Moldavian A.S.S.R. to form Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, a primary subdivision of the U.S.S.R. The Bessarabian section consisted of the Romanian counties of Bălți, Cahul, Lăpușna, Orhei, Soroca, and Tighina. They became counties (judeţul; sing. judeţ) of the new unit, with the names of Lăpușna and Tighina changed to Chişinău and Bender, respectively. The part that had already been part of the U.S.S.R. became an entity called "rayons of republican subordination." That part covered much territory between the Dnieper and Bug Rivers, including all of present-day Transnistria.
2. 1940-08-26: Chişinău and Tiraspol cities split from their superordinate units (Chişinău county and R.R.S., respectively) and elevated to the status of cities of republican subordination.
3. 1940-11-11: Bălți and Bender split from their counties and elevated to cities of republican subordination.
4. 1947-10-16: Counties abolished. Sixty rayons and seven cities of republican subordination became the top-level subdivisions of Moldavian S.S.R.
5. 1952-02-01: Four districts (ocrugul, pl. ocruguri) created as groupings of rayons and cities. They were Bălţi, Cahul, Chişinău, and Tiraspol; their capitals had the same names.
6. 1953-06-15: Districts abolished. The number of rayons and cities varied from 26 to 67 between then and independence.
7. 1990-08-16: Transnistria, consisting of almost all of the Moldavian S.S.R. east of the Dniester River, declared itself separate.
8. 1991-08-27: Moldavia declared independence, renamed Moldova. It was divided into forty districts (raioane), six towns (oraşe), and four municipal councils. Source [2] shows the following list. Populations are estimates from the 1992 yearbook. International standard ISO 3166-2, dated 1998-12-15, shows Moldova divided into the fifty divisions listed here (with no distinction between cities and towns). Change Notice 2 to FIPS PUB 10-4, dated 1999-03-01, shows Moldova divided into 41 districts (the same 40 listed below, plus Gagauzia) and four cities; the six towns are not listed.

Division	Typ	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Population	Area(km.²)	Later
Anenii Noi	d	MD.AN	ANE	MD01	77,400	802	CJ
Bălţi	c	MD.BT	BAL	MD02	160,700	66	BL
Basarabeasca	d	MD.BA	BAS	MD03	43,600	533	LP
Bender	c	MD.BD	TIG	MD04	137,900	65	DU
Briceni	d	MD.BR	BRI	MD05	82,700	814	ET
Cahul	d	MD.CH	CHL	MD06	44,300	817	CG
Cahul	t	MD.CT	CAH		43,600	10	CG
Căinari	d	MD.CI	CAI	MD07	42,500	707	TG
Călăraşi	d	MD.CA	CAL	MD08	84,200	757	UN
Camenca	d	MD.CM	CAM	MD09	59,800	748	DU
Cantemir	d	MD.CN	CAN	MD10	60,700	847	CG
Căuşeni	d	MD.CU	CAS	MD11	72,600	828	TG
Chişinău	c	MD.CV	CHI	MD13	741,700	321	CC
Ciadîr-Lunga	d	MD.CL	CIA	MD12	68,700	723	GA
Cimişlia	d	MD.CS	CIM	MD14	61,200	820	LP
Comrat	d	MD.CO	COM	MD15	71,100	845	GA
Criuleni	d	MD.CR	CRI	MD16	91,500	822	CJ
Donduşeni	d	MD.DO	DON	MD17	66,900	897	ET
Drochia	d	MD.DR	DRO	MD18	80,600	779	SR
Dubăsari	d	MD.DB	DBI	MD19	54,000	663	DU
Dubăsari	t	MD.DT	DUB		24,600	15	DU
Edineţ	d	MD.ED	EDI	MD20	90,100	896	ET
Făleşti	d	MD.FA	FAL	MD21	94,400	1,073	BL
Floreşti	d	MD.FL	FLO	MD22	76,000	835	SR
Glodeni	d	MD.GL	GLO	MD24	65,500	764	BL
Grigoriopol	d	MD.GR	GRI	MD25	52,400	812	DU
Hînceşti	d	MD.HI	HIN	MD26	117,300	1,373	LP
Ialoveni	d	MD.IA	IAL	MD27	86,800	589	CJ
Leova	d	MD.LE	LEO	MD28	51,600	699	LP
Nisporeni	d	MD.NI	NIS	MD29	80,500	773	UN
Ocniţa	d	MD.OC	OCN	MD30	62,700	634	ET
Orhei	d	MD.OH	OHI	MD31	96,700	1,178	OR
Orhei	t	MD.OT	ORH		38,400	19	OR
Rezina	d	MD.RZ	REZ	MD32	55,400	647	OR
Rîbniţa	d	MD.RB	RIT	MD33	32,900	850	DU
Rîbniţa	t	MD.RT	RIB		62,400	23	DU
Rîşcani	d	MD.RS	RIS	MD34	83,300	1,019	BL
Sîngerei	d	MD.SI	SIN	MD35	91,400	1,017	BL
Slobozia	d	MD.SB	SLO	MD36	114,300	913	DU
Şoldăneşti	d	MD.SD	SOL	MD37	46,300	598	OR
Soroca	d	MD.SO	SOA	MD38	57,700	872	SR
Soroca	t	MD.SC	SOC		41,500	12	SR
Ştefan Vodă	d	MD.SV	STE	MD39	76,100	1,022	TG
Străşeni	d	MD.ST	STR	MD40	96,700	736	CJ
Taraclia	d	MD.TA	TAR	MD41	45,800	629	TR
Teleneşti	d	MD.TE	TEL	MD42	76,300	862	OR
Tiraspol	c	MD.TI	TIR	MD43	204,200	92	DU
Ungheni	d	MD.UG	UGI	MD44	79,200	1,067	UN
Ungheni	t	MD.UT	UNG		39,600	14	UN
Vulcaneşti	d	MD.VU	VUL	MD45	62,000	933	GA
50 divisions					4,347,800	33,840
Typ: c = city, d = district, t = town. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: District codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Population: 1992-01-01 estimate. Later: Corresponding county in 1999 division (see note).

1. Note: Many districts were split between two or more counties in the 1999 reorganization. The "Later" column in this table shows the last two letters of the HASC code for the 1999 division which contains the town whose name matches this division.
2. 1995-08: Găgăuzia district (FIPS code MD23) became an autonomous territory. Previously it had been a minority area consisting approximately of the districts of Ciadîr-Lunga, Comrat, and part of Vulcaneşti, forming two disconnected areas along the southern border of Moldova with Ukraine. Its capital is Comrat (or Komrat).
3. 1998-12-30: Moldova reorganized into nine counties, one city, one autonomous territory, and Transnistria. The International Monetary Fund requested the change as a way to reduce Moldova's administrative expenses (source [6]).
4. 1999-10-22: Taraclia county split from Cahul, to accommodate a local ethnic Bulgarian majority. As a result, Moldova was divided into ten counties, one city, one autonomous territory, and one territorial unit, as shown in the following table.

County	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Code	Population	Capital	Russian
Bălţi	MD.BL	BA	MD46	05	500,900	Bălţi	Bel'tsy
Cahul	MD.CG	CA	MD47	10	190,800	Cahul	Kagul
Chişinău [City]	MD.CC	CU	MD48	15	779,400	Chişinău	Kishinev
Chişinău	MD.CJ	CH	MD48	15	382,400	Ialoveni	Kishinev
Edineţ	MD.ET	ED	MD50	20	279,100	Edineţ	Yedintsy
Găgăuzia	MD.GA	GA	MD51	55	158,900	Comrat
Lăpuşna	MD.LP	LA	MD52	25	276,300	Hînceşti	Lapushna
Orhei	MD.OR	OR	MD53	30	300,400	Orhei	Orgeyev
Soroca	MD.SR	SO	MD54	35	274,600	Soroca	Soroki
Stîngă Nistrului	MD.DU	SN	MD49	60		Dubăsari	Dubossary
Taraclia	MD.TR	TA		40	45,600	Taraclia	Tarakliya
Tighina	MD.TG	TI	MD55	45	169,000	Căuşeni	Bendery
Ungheni	MD.UN	UN	MD56	50	260,300	Ungheni	Ungeny
13 divisions					3,617,700
County: Găgăuzia is an autonomous territorial unit; Stîngă Nistrului is a territorial unit. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: County codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "MD-" to the code (ex: MD-OR represents Orhei). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. Code: Identification codes from CUATM2000, a Moldovan statistics standard. Population: 2003-01-01 estimate (source [1]). Population of Stîngă Nistrului not reported. Russian: Transliteration, from Cyrillic, of the name used under Soviet rule.

1. 2003-03-18: Moldova reorganized into the divisions shown above under the Primary subdivisions heading, under Administrative-Territorial Law No. 764 XV of 2001-12-27, approved with modifications in 2003.

Other names of subdivisions: 

During the existence of the Moldavian S.S.R., the Soviet Union imposed the use of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Romanian language spoken in Moldavia. Names transliterated from Cyrillic are different from the native forms now used by Moldova, as shown in the tables above.

1. Bender: Tighina (variant)
2. Căinari: Dumbrăveni (obsolete)
3. Chişinău: Chischiniev (Italian); Kishinev (obsolete)
4. Găgăuzia: Unitate Teritorială Autonoma Găgăuzia (formal); UTAG (informal)
5. Hînceşti: Kotovsc (obsolete)
6. Ialoveni: Kutuzov (obsolete)
7. Sîngerei: Lazo (obsolete)
8. Slobozia: Slobodzia (variant)
9. Şoldăneşti: Cernenko (obsolete)
10. Ştefan Vodă: Suvorovo (obsolete)
11. Transnistria: Dniester, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), Transdniestria (variant); Dubăsari (obsolete); Stîngă Nistrului (variant); Unitatea Teritorială din Stîngă Nistrului (formal); Приднестровская Молдавская Республика (formal) (Russian)

Sources: 

1. [1] Anuarul Statistic al Republicii Moldova 2003 (Statistical Yearbook 2003). Department for Statistics and Sociology of the Republic of Moldova, Chişinău, 2003.
2. [2] Anuarul Statistic al Republicii Moldova 1992. Chisinau Universitas, 1994.
3. [3] Statistica Moldovei, http://www.statistica.md/dates.php?lang=ro&ct=21 (dead link, retrieved 2005-07-30).
4. [4] Wikipedia article Moldova  (retrieved 2005-07-30).
5. [5] CUATM2000 and CUATM2003 tables were found at http://www.statistica.md/class/index1.php?pagina=item&&nivel=pr&&clas=CUATM&&versiune=CUATM2000&&viziune=CUATM2000_JUDETE and http://www.statistica.md/class/index1.php?pagina=item&&nivel=pr&&clas=CUATM&&versiune=CUATM2003&&viziune=CUATM2003_RAIOANE (both dead links, retrieved 2005-07-30).
6. [6] Deepa Khosla wrote about the 1999-06 reorganization at http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/molgaga.htm (dead link, retrieved 2000-12-21). He cites a Tass report dated 1999-02-22.
7. [7] 2004 census results for Transnistria (http://www.pridnestrovie.net/2004census.html, dead link, retrieved 2010-01-12).
8. [8] World Wide Historical Project  page about the Moldavian S.S.R. (in Russian, retrieved 2012-03-24).
9. [9] Map of Transnistria  (retrieved 2011-10-26).
10. [10] Thematic road map of Transnistria, http://www.pridnestrovie.net/images/maptransportation.jpg (dead link, retrieved 2010-01-12). Appears to show five regions, with Bender, Slobozya, and Tiraspol merged.