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.

[3][4] The area of the county, along with the rest of the Moldavian SSR, became part of the independent Republic of Moldova.

According to the census data of 1930, the county's population was 306,592, of which 53.4% were ethnic Romanians, 14.7% Russians, 12.8% Gagauz, 6.4% Bulgarians, 5.5% Jews, 3.4% Germans, 3.0% Ukrainians, 0.4% Romanies, as well as other minorities.

In the year 1930, the county's urban population was 44,057, of which 35.6% were ethnic Russians, 19.8% Jews, 17.7% Gagauz, 16.7% Romanians, 4.4% Bulgarians, 3.1% Ukrainians, as well as other minorities.