In 20 years of independence Ukraine’s population has fallen by 6 million

The State Statistics Service has published population figures which show that as of 1 July this year the population stood at 45 million 675 thousand, this being 6.27 million less than 20 years ago.

More than 31 million (68%) live in urban areas, and over 14 million (32%) in rural.

The Statistics Servie explains the dramatic fall in population (12%) as being attributable to emigration, particularly from 1994-2002, to CIS countries, other neighbouring countries and further abroad.

Svitlana Aksyonova from the Institute of Demography pointed out that the number of children born over the last two years has not changed, and the fall in population is mainly due to an increase in deaths among the elderly.

Only three places saw increases in population: Kyiv (by almost 1 thousand people, but through people arriving); the Rivne and Transcarpathian regions.

The population fell the most in the Donetsk region (-17, 656 people) and Dnipropetrovsk region (-10, 300).

From a report originally at www.segodnya.ua