Rada admits reduction of Ukraine's population to 21-24 mln people

The population of Ukraine could shrink to 21-24m people. This was stated on 18 January by Verkhovna Rada MP Oleksandr Dubynskyy, who is in a Ukrainian detention center on suspicion of treason.

According to Dubinsky, Ukraine has become smaller by 10 million people.

"If we use the coefficient of grain consumption (6 million tons for 2024) to estimate the number of remaining population, the number of population in Ukraine can be assumed in the region of 21-24 million people," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

The MP added that these calculations are about half as much as official statistics.

Earlier, on December 16, 2024, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said that the demographic indicators in Ukraine resemble an hourglass, where the narrow neck in the middle is occupied by men and women aged 18 to 24. He also said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) were suffering catastrophic losses amid a shortage of human resources.

Before that, on October 24 of the same year, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador for special assignments, Rodion Miroshnik, said that the demographic situation in Ukraine was approaching catastrophic. According to him, in reality, things are much worse than the data cited by the United Nations (UN) in its recent report.

Meanwhile, Florence Bauer, regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the UN Population Fund, said at a briefing in Geneva on October 22, 2024, that Ukraine's population has dropped by 10 million people since the start of the conflict in February 2022. She said the country's population decline was due to "a combination of factors."

In October 2024, the Ukrainian government said that the country's population will decrease to 25.2 million people by 2051. It was noted that on January 1, 2022 the population was 42 million people, in July 2024 - 35.8 million. It is specified that on the territory controlled by Ukraine live 31.1 million people. Among the reasons for the population decline emphasized the military conflict, low birth rate, increased mortality, migration, aging of the population and others.

Before that, on July 14, 2024, UN experts reported that the population of Ukraine would drop to 15.3 million people by 2100. These data are published in the table of the report on demography in the countries of the world. According to the data for 2020, Ukraine had more than 44 million people.