The Ukrainian population has declined by eight million people since the Russian invasion in February 2022, which caused an exodus and a drop in the birth rate, the HIM this Tuesday 22nd.
“Globally, we found that the population in Ukraine has decreased by almost 10 million inhabitants since 2014 and by almost eight million since the start of the large-scale invasion in 2022,” declared Florence Bauer, regional director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in a new press release.
The document – which cites government and UNFPA data – states that Ukraine’s population is 35 million inhabitants this year, compared to 43 million in 2022 and 45 million in 2014, the year in which Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
Bauer explained that the reduction is the result of a “combination of factors” and highlighted that “even before the escalation of the war”, Ukraine was facing important demographic challenges.
Before the war, Ukraine had one of the lowest birth rates in Europe and, as in other areas of Eastern Europe and other countries around the world, the population was aging, while young people emigrated in search of new opportunities, Bauer highlighted.
But since the start of the conflict, 6.7 million people have fled Ukraine and the birth rate has fallen to one child per woman. This is “one of the lowest rates in the world and is far below” the limit to renew the population, which is 2.1 children, he added.
The UNFPA director also lamented the deaths of “a significant number” of people in the conflict.
