Moldova transport trends 2015–2025
Registered cars 2025
894,618
Car growth 2015–2025
+68.9%
Cars per 1,000 people
375
Public transport rides / person
148
Registered passenger cars vs. population
Cars (left axis)
Population (right axis)
One person, one car. Moldova’s car fleet grew by 365,000 vehicles while the population shrank by 460,000. The motorization rate doubled — from 194 to 375 cars per 1,000 residents. The country is rapidly approaching a ratio where, statistically, there is one registered car for every two residents, including children and the elderly. In practice, among working-age adults, the ratio is already close to one-to-one.
Cars per 1,000 residents
Public transport passengers by mode (million rides)
Trolleybus
Bus
Taxi
Public transport is growing too — but differently. Total public transport ridership in 2025 exceeded the pre-COVID peak of 2019 by 29%. The fastest-growing segment is taxi (×4.8 since 2015), driven by ride-hailing platforms. Trolleybus ridership — a proxy for the Chișinău agglomeration, since routes now extend into Stăuceni, the airport, Ialoveni, and Bubuieci — grew 58%, far outpacing the city’s 7% population growth. Buses recovered more slowly (+13% vs. 2019). The pattern: more rides per person, concentrated in urban areas.
Public transport rides per resident per year
Both trends point to the same conclusion. Cars are multiplying because those who stay earn more (including diaspora remittances) and increasingly live in the suburban belt. Public transport ridership is growing because the agglomeration is getting denser. But these two trends are now colliding in the same streets: the city center is absorbing more cars than its road network can handle, while the trolleybus fleet has not expanded to match the ridership growth. The result is congestion that penalizes everyone — drivers and public transport users alike. This growing tension between private cars and urban capacity is a subject we will explore in a future piece — including the case for restricting vehicle access to the center, investing in public transport infrastructure, introducing paid parking downtown, and building park-and-ride facilities on the city’s edges.
Sources: Vehicle registrations — Public Services Agency via National Bureau of Statistics. Passenger transport — NBS statistical reports. Population — NBS, 2024 census. All data excludes Transnistria and Bender.