Population is declining: more people are leaving Ukraine than returning
31 July 2025 13:45
In the first six months of 2025, Ukrainians crossed the state border more than 16.4 million times. At the same time, 250 thousand citizens who left this year did not return. This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Opendatabot data.
16.47 million state border crossings were recorded in 6 months of 2025. This is 4% more than in the same period last year. The vast majority of crossings – 85%, or 14.08 million – were made by Ukrainians.
It is worth noting that these are official crossings of the state border – cases of “crossing the Tisza” or leaving through the temporarily occupied territories cannot be reliably tracked.
The overall dynamics indicate a stable movement of Ukrainians, although migration outflow is still negative. In 2025, 7.17 million people left and 6.92 million returned. Thus, in the first half of the year, more than 250,000 citizens remained abroad.
In total, over 3 million Ukrainians have left the country during the full-scale war and have not yet returned. These are only official figures. Cases of crossing the border through the temporarily occupied territories or “unofficial routes” (such as illegal crossings of the Tisza River) are not taken into account, and their exact number cannot be estimated.
When do people leave the most?
On average, Ukrainians cross the border 2.35 million times a month. The lowest activity was in February (1.78 million), and the highest – in June (3.13 million).
Summer months – June, July and August – are traditionally considered to be the peak months due to vacations, seasonal work and trips to relatives. This period accounts for a third of all annual crossings.
