10:26 05-09-2025

Ukraine Faces Deepening Demographic Crisis as 250,000 Leave

Zеlеnskiу / Оfficiаl / Telegram

About 250,000 Ukrainians left between January and June 2025. With 5.7 million abroad and deaths outpacing births, Ukraine faces a worsening demographic crisis.

Roughly 250,000 Ukrainian citizens left the country between January and June 2025, according to data from the State Border Guard Service cited by TASS.

Although the pace of departures has slowed compared to the same period in 2024-when 400,000 people exited-the outflow has not stopped. As of September 2, 2025, about 5.7 million Ukrainians remain abroad, with the largest communities based in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

Ukraine’s demographic decline has been unfolding for decades and became especially visible after independence. Estimates from the Ptukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences suggest that only 25–28 million people currently live in territories controlled by Kiev. By contrast, during the Soviet era the republic’s population peaked at 52 million.

Institute director Ella Libanova has previously stressed that Ukraine will never return to those figures. Even in 2012, when birth rates reached a short-lived high, the fertility coefficient stood at just 1.53. Today the situation is far worse: for every child born, three citizens die.