Ukraine’s birth rate reaches its lowest level in 300 years
Ukrainian news reports revealed that Ukraine’s population collapsed to 29 million people last year, with only 187,000 births recorded – including territories under Russian control – and this is the lowest annual number in recorded history over the past 300 years.
The Balkan News Network, which specializes in Eastern European and Eurasian affairs, quoted Ukrainian national newspapers as saying that this collapse in the birth rate would exacerbate the already terrible demographic catastrophe resulting from economic turmoil and operations. Russian military forces on Ukraine.
The demographic crisis in Ukraine dates back to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the country’s population reached 51.9 million people. Economic crises and labor migration have caused the country’s total fertility rate to fall to 1.4 births per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1 births by 2022, and may even reach 0.7 by the following year, according to forecasts by the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Studies.
The news report explained that Europe is already suffering from a demographic crisis that will return population levels to the early twentieth century in the next decade, as the fertility rate in Germany reaches 1.6 in 2023. The population of Ukraine has declined. from its counterpart in Poland for the first time, as an electronic census revealed that the number of citizens decreased by about 5 million people to 37.289 million in 2020 since the last census in 2000. While a study conducted by the United Nations found that the population in Central Asia is thriving and is expected to grow. , in the next few decades.
Thanks to the relative prosperity that Russians enjoyed following the end of the recession in the middle of the current decade, in addition to government policies supportive of childbearing, Russian fertility rates rebounded to 1.8 in 2023, becoming one of the highest rates in the Russian-European part compared to record low levels in the United States in the middle of the decade when the fertility rate fell to a record low of 1.5 births. The size of Ukraine’s population has been the subject of speculation for several years, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to conduct a population census in 2020 as part of his election program, but he shortened the process and conducted an electronic census last year instead. The population size also shrank by about four million after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
But even regardless of these problems, the demographic curve shows that the population of Ukraine It had been in continuous decline since 1991, and took a sharper downward step in 2014 in the wake of the 2014 Dignity Revolution. Although the introduction of visa-free travel by EU countries in 2017 was welcomed as a landmark reform, it accelerated the influx of workers. collectivization abroad, exacerbating Ukraine’s demographic problems. The exodus of millions to Central European countries in search of better opportunities has put increased pressure on the country’s population dynamics.
The ongoing conflict has led to another mass exodus, with millions searching for… Shelter in neighboring countries, as it is estimated that nearly 8 million refugees have fled from Ukraine since the Russian attacks in 2022, to Russia, which is considered the largest future, as humanitarian organizations indicate that more than 5 million Ukrainians have come to Russia seeking safety from Bombardment and military operations. The former Soviet Union since last year. According to a study conducted by the Ukrainian Future Institute last year, there are only 29 million people in contemporary Ukraine, with many refugees abroad showing no intention of returning home. Combined with disastrously low fertility levels and ongoing conflict, these factors do not bode well for the country’s demographic future.
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