UKRAINE
Population

Cities in UKRAINE

Population

General

For the time being, in 1992, the Ukrainian population reached its largest size at 52 million inhabitants. Causes for this are deteriorating health care, poor nutrition and declining living standards, which increased infant mortality and decreased the life expectancy of the Ukrainian. In addition, since 1993 the number of immigrants from the former Soviet republics decreased significantly and since 1995 the number of emigrants to Canada, the United States and Israel in particular increased.

The population of Ukraine in 2024 was about 39 million. The sparsely populated country has about 67 inhabitants per km2. After independence, anyone in Ukraine could obtain Ukrainian citizenship and most residents have done so.

The population consists of Ukrainians (77.8%), Russians (17.3%), and also Jews, White Russians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, and Romanians. Western Ukraine is predominantly Ukrainian, with many more of the above ethnic groups living in the rest of the country, with many in Crimea and the east who see themselves as Russians.

Although Ukraine has a fairly homogeneous population, the country still has some small minority groups in the center and southwest. In the far west live the Lemky, a little further east live the Boiky. In the northern mountainous areas live the Wolynians and in the Carpathians live the most important minority group, the Hutsuls. After the break with the Soviet Union, the Crimean Tatars also returned, who had been deported to Siberia and Central Asia in 1944 on charges of collaborating with the Germans.

About 70% of the population lives in major cities such as the capital Kyiv, Kharkov, Donetsk, Odessa, Dniepropetrovsk, Lvov, Zaporozhe and Krivoy Rog.

The annual natural population growth rate was 2.38% in 2024. The average life expectancy for women is 75.8 years, for men 65.4 years. The number of births per 1000 inhabitants in 2024 was 6 and the mortality per 1000 inhabitants in the same year was 18.6.

The population structure is as follows:

0-14 year 12,3%
15-65 year 67.8%
65+ 19.9%

The largest cities in 2014 are Kyiv with 3 million inhabitants and Kharkov with 1.4 million inhabitants.

Ukrainians in the world

Millions of Ukrainians live in the countries of the former Soviet Union; millions more live in other countries of Europe and further North and South America and Australia. The largest Ukrainian communities are found in Canada (1.1 million), the United States (1.2 million), Argentina, Brazil, Germany Great Britain and Australia.

The reasons for the different periods of emigration were quite different. Both socio-economic conditions and government policies were reasons for leaving.

The first emigration period was from the end of the 19th century to 1914. The largest migration then was to the United States (250,000-300,000), Canada (170,000) and Brazil (35,000).

Between the two World Wars, the land movers moved to countries such as France, South Africa and Argentina. During this period there were also many political emigrants, who settled mainly in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

The third emigration period took place after World War II. The Germans had deported over two million Ukrainian men and women to Germany as forced labor. After the war, about 210,000 remained in Germany. Between 1947 and 1991, about 80,000 Ukrainians departed for the United States, 30,000 for Canada, and 20,000 for Australia.

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