Ukraine's population has fallen by 10 million since Russia's invasion, UN says

Ukraine's population has declined by 10 million, oregon astir a quarter, since the commencement of Russia's full-scale penetration arsenic a effect of refugees leaving, collapsing fertility and warfare deaths, the United Nations said connected Tuesday.

Speaking astatine a Geneva quality conference, Florence Bauer, Eastern Europe caput astatine the U.N. Population Fund, said the penetration successful February 2022 had turned an already hard demographic concern into thing much severe.

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"The commencement complaint plummeted and is presently astatine astir 1 kid per woman, which is 1 of the lowest successful the world," she said. It takes a fertility complaint of 2.1 children per pistillate to support a unchangeable population.

A information subordinate helps to determination the belongings of a household fleeing the Russian onslaught connected Ukraine aft their accomplishment astatine a impermanent exile structure successful Hanau, Germany, March 2, 2023.   (REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach)

Ukraine, which had a colonisation of implicit 50 cardinal erstwhile the Soviet Union collapsed successful 1991, has, similar astir each its Eastern European and Central Asian neighbours, undergone terrible colonisation decline. In 2021, the past twelvemonth earlier Russia's full-scale penetration it had a colonisation of astir 40 million.

Bauer said that a precise accounting for the interaction of the warfare connected Ukraine's colonisation would person to hold until aft the struggle ended erstwhile a afloat census could yet beryllium carried out.

The contiguous interaction was connected regions that were all-but depopulated, villages with lone aged radical left, and couples incapable to commencement families, she said.

Much-larger Russia, with a pre-war colonisation of implicit 140 million, has besides seen its already dire demographic concern deteriorate since it invaded Ukraine: it recorded its lowest commencement complaint since 1999 successful the archetypal six months of this year, a level even the Kremlin described arsenic "catastrophic".

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The largest chunk of Ukraine's colonisation diminution was accounted for by the 6.7 cardinal refugees present surviving abroad, chiefly successful Europe. War deaths were besides a factor.

"It's hard to person nonstop numbers, but estimates scope astir tens of thousands of casualties," she said.