Ukraine’s population declined by 10 million due to Russian invasion – UN
23 October 2024 06:22
Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine’s population has fallen by 10 million, or about a quarter of the total. Now, every woman in Ukraine needs to give birth to at least two children. Reuters writes about this with reference to a UN statement, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
The reasons for this are the departure of refugees, a drop in the birth rate, and war-related deaths.
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Florence Bauer, head of the Eastern Europe division of the United Nations Population Fund, said that the invasion in February 2022 had turned an already difficult demographic situation into a more serious one.
“The fertility rate has plummeted and now stands at around one child per woman, one of the lowest in the world,” she said.
To maintain a stable population, a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman is required.
Ukraine, which had a population of more than 50 million when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, like almost all of its Eastern European and Central Asian neighbours, has experienced a severe population decline. In 2021, the last year before Russia’s full-scale invasion, it was home to about 40 million people.
Bauer says that an accurate accounting of the war’s impact on Ukraine’s population will have to wait until after the conflict, when a full census can finally be conducted.
According to her, it has had a direct impact on regions that were almost depopulated, villages where only the elderly remained, and couples unable to start families.
The largest share of Ukraine’s population decline came from the 6.7 million refugees now living abroad, mostly in Europe.
Deaths in the war were also a factor.
“It’s hard to have exact numbers, but estimates are in the tens of thousands of victims,” she said.
