Chisinau - The National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova (NBS) together with the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family, jointly with UNFPA celebrated the World Population Day in the framework of a joint event aimed at highlighting the issues related to the population and family planning.

The World Population Day was first marked in 1989 on the recommendation of the United Nations Development Program's Governing Board. The day of July 11 was selected as a result of the global population reaching five billion that day in 1987.

The visualization application for the Population and Housing Census 2014 results was also launched during the event. This application is an interactive tool for accessing and visualising the census data for all interested in the characteristics of the population and housing in the Republic of Moldova, for the representatives of central and local public administration authorities involved in decision-making in the social and economic sphere, as well as non-governmental organizations, representatives of the business and academia, the media, as well as the general public.

Minister of Labour, Social Protection and Family Stela Grigoraş underlined that the Census directly contributes to the elaboration and implementation of an effective policy framework for the socio-economic development of the country: "Qualitative and truthful, updated and detailed statistical data on the state of the population enable public institutions to plan actions and develop quality services tailored to the needs of the population, improve the quality of life and solve the demographic problems of the country."

Director of the National Bureau of Statistics Vitalie Valcov noted how important the population's statistics are for a state's policies: "For the first time, a census data is disseminated in an interactive and accessible way to capitalize on the huge amount of data collected and to meet the needs different categories of users. Improving the accessibility of census data on the population will contribute to the development, implementation and monitoring of informed and evidence-based public policies."

In the context of the World Population Day, Rita Columbia, UNFPA Representative in Moldova, underlined that: "Ensuring access to safe and voluntary family planning is essential for gender equality and empowerment of women, and is a key factor for empowering young women. Ensuring this right for every person in Moldova, but especially for women and girls, is a key solution to the demographic challenges faced by the Republic of Moldova - low fertility, the decrease of the population and, most importantly, the economic development of the country."

Elaboration of the Census results visualisation application was possible due to the technical assistance from the United Nations Population Fund and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation for the dissemination of the results of the Census 2014.