The paper aimed to present the evolution and current situation regarding rural population in Romania and the Republic of Moldova during the period 2000-2010 in order to identify the similiarities and differences in these two „sister” countries with Romanian population. The number of population, active population and employed population decreased in both countries but mainly in the Republic of Moldova because of the low natality, population ageing and economic crisis. Both countries have a high number of persons living in the rural areas: in 2010, in Romania there were 9.6 million people, representing 44.83 % of total population, and in the Republic of Moldova there were 2 million people, weighting 58.55 % of the population. The number of jobs in the rural areas was less and less in both countries. In 2010, the unemployed people in the rural areas represented 30.2 % in Romania and 37.6 % in the Republic of Moldova out of the total number of unemployees.Young people are especially affected by economic crisis, the migration to urban localities being a common phenomenon at present in both countries. Most people have a secondary education level in both countries. The main aspects the Governments have to pay attention are: diversification of activities in the rural areas and investments in order create new jobs, and increasing the training level of people in order to diminish migration to cities, the rural population ageing, and to increase the living standard.