Ukraine's population decreased by 10 million after Russia's invasion - UN
Photo: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has reduced the Ukrainian population by 10 million people (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Ukraine's population has shrunk by 10 million people, or about a quarter, since Russia's full-scale invasion began, due to refugee outflows, falling birth rates, and war deaths, according to Florence Bauer, head of the UN Population Fund's Eastern Europe office.
At a press conference in Geneva, Bauer said that the February 2022 invasion had turned an already difficult demographic situation into something more serious.
“The birth rate plummeted and is currently at around one child per woman, which is one of the lowest in the world,” she says. A fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman is needed to maintain a stable population.
Bauer says that an accurate accounting of the war's impact on Ukraine's population will have to be postponed until after Russia's war against Ukraine when a full census can finally be conducted.
According to her, the direct impact has been felt in regions that have been virtually depopulated, villages where only the elderly remain, and couples unable to start families.
The largest part of Ukraine's population decline is due to the 6.7 million refugees now living abroad, mostly in Europe. Military deaths have also been a factor.
“It's difficult to have exact numbers, but estimates range around tens of thousands of casualties,” she says.
According to the Institute of Demography and Quality of Life Problems of the National Academy of Sciences, the population of Ukraine was
- 42 million people as of January 1, 2022
- 35.8 million people, including 31.1 million people in the territories where public authorities exercise their powers in full, as of July 2024.
According to UN estimates, as of August 2024, the number of migrants from Ukraine in the world reached 6.7 million people.
