[2] In the urban area the mother tongues were divided as follows: Yiddish (45.5%), followed by Romanian (28.1%), Russian (21.7%), Polish (2.0%), Ukrainian (1.1%), as well as other minorities.

From a religious point of view, the urban population consisted of 47.1% Eastern Orthodox, 46.6% Jewish, 4.1% Roman Catholic, as well as other minorities.

Census data of 1941 - during World War II - indicate the county's population was 407,930, of which 80.44% were ethnic Romanians, 14.38% Ukrainians, 3.11% Russians, 0.78% Poles, 0.72% Jews, as well as other minorities.

The area returned to Romanian administration as the Bessarabia Governorate following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1941.

A military administration was established and the region's Jewish population was either executed on the spot or deported to the Transnistria Governorate, where further numbers were killed.