According to the results of the census held in October 2004, there are 65,072 Bessarabian Bulgarians (1.95% of the population) in Moldova (excluding the region of Transnistria), concentrated mostly in the southern parts — chiefly in Taraclia district.

In the census held in November 2004 in Transnistria, 3,164 (3.16%) Bulgarians have been counted in Tighina and surroundings and further 10,515 (2.39%) on the Eastern bank of the river Dnestr.

The settlers came primarily from what is now Thrace - Glavan village, Stara Zagora Bulgaria, but many were also descendants from the western areas of the Bulgarian homelands (as far west as modern-day Albania) but had moved east in and before the 18th century.

Alongside the Bulgarians who immigrated to Bessarabia were also a handful of Albanians who also had settled in eastern Bulgaria some time before.

When Russian Armies were reaching and crossing Danube during the Russian-Ottoman Wars, some local Bulgarians supported them.

Russian propaganda also worked to convince Bulgarians to settle in areas recently conquered by them, from which Tatars were removed.

Seven of the 12 villages were Gagauzian (Baurci, Beșalma, Ceadîr-Lunga, Chessău, Dezghingea, Gaidar, and Tomai), and 5 were Bulgarian.

In 1861, 20,000 Bulgarians from the Romanian part of Bessarabia moved to Russia, where they were given land in Taurida Governorate to replace the Nogais who had left what was formerly territory of the Crimean Khanate.

Although being an officially accepted minority under Soviet rule, the Bessarabian Bulgarians lost some features of their cultural identity in the period.