According to the Institute of Demography of Ukraine, the country's population was about 42 million before Russia's full-scale invasion. Today, that figure is estimated to have shrunk to less than 36 million, including several million people in temporarily occupied territories.
Reuters reports that Ukraine's population could shrink to 25 million by 2051. The trend is driven by fighting, high mortality rates, low birth rates and mass emigration. During the nearly four years of war, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or injured, and millions have fled the country.
According to the 2024 CIA World Factbook, Ukraine has one of the highest mortality rates and the lowest birth rates in the world: about three deaths per newborn. In all regions of the country, mortality exceeds birth rates.
The average life expectancy of Ukrainians has also decreased. For men, it fell from 65.2 years to 57.3 in 2024, for women - from 74.4 to 70.9 years.
Experts and politicians note that Ukraine will need millions of new citizens to restore the economy, maintain defense capabilities, and social stability, and the issue of demographics is becoming strategically important for the state.
