The arrival of a child is one of the most important events in every family’s life. Since the beginning of 2026, 97,767 medical birth certificates have been generated in the electronic healthcare system, the National Health Service reported, UNN writes.
The largest number of medical birth certificates since the beginning of the year was generated in Kyiv (13.8 thousand), Lviv (8.9 thousand), Dnipropetrovsk (7.5 thousand), Odesa (7.2 thousand), and Rivne (5.5 thousand) regions. The regions with high figures also include Zakarpattia, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kharkiv regions.
Kyiv is the leader, but the birth rate has fallen significantly
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, more than 86,500 babies have been born in the capital. And in the first six months of 2026, 8,352 children were born, the highest figure in Ukraine. However, the birth rate in the capital fell by 16% compared with the same period last year.
The decline in the birth rate in the capital became especially noticeable during the full-scale war, but it began even before 2022.
"The largest number of births in Kyiv’s municipal institutions that we have ever recorded was 33,000 per year. That was between 2000 and 2010. If we take the last two years, 2025 and 2026, the birth rate has fallen significantly — to 20,000 births per year. On the one hand, everything is clear — both why so few people are giving birth and why there are no women who want to have children. On the other hand, there are certain reasons related to health, as well as others that we call social," said Dmytro Hovsyeiev, director of the capital’s Perinatal Center.
According to official statistics covering not only municipal institutions but all babies born in the capital overall, 35,558 babies were born in Kyiv in 2015, while in 2019 the figure was already around 30,000. After 2022, the figure has averaged slightly more than 19,000.
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The birth rate is affected by a number of factors caused by the war: migration, a lack of confidence in the future, changes in gender roles and the family model — men at the front and women on their own — as well as economic factors and health.
Ukrainians’ planning horizon has shrunk significantly — for many, it is now about "surviving the year" or even "surviving the night." None of this contributes to improving the demographic situation.