Ukraine's population drops by 10 million since Russia's full-scale invasion

As reported by Reuters, Florence Bauer, Eastern Europe head at the U.N. Population Fund, noted that this decline is due to refugees leaving the country, a falling birth rate, and deaths from the war. 

"The birth rate plummeted and is currently at around one child per woman, which is one of the lowest in the world," she said. It takes a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman to maintain a stable population”, she explained.

In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine's population was over 50 million. By 2021, it was around 40 million. Bauer mentioned that to accurately assess the war's impact on the population, a full census will be needed after the conflict ends.

"It's difficult to have exact numbers, but estimates range around tens of thousands of casualties,” she added, highlighting that the largest part of the population decline is due to the 6.7 million Ukrainian refugees living abroad.

• According to Ukraine's Ministry of Health, as of July 2024, the population of Ukraine amounted to 35.8 million people: the Ministry of Social Policy cites the reasons for the decline.