As the fourth anniversary of the war in Ukraine approaches, the birth rate in Ukraine is falling, and the number of people struggling with fertility or postponing the decision to have children is growing. At the same time, front-line losses are increasing, and millions of people who fled as refugees have now settled abroad. The result is one of the worst demographic crises in the world, CNN reports, writes UNN.
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"It's a disaster," Ella Libanova, a leading Ukrainian demographer, told CNN. "No country can exist without people. Even before the war, Ukraine's population density was low (and) very unevenly distributed."
Libanova said that since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has lost about 10 million people – among those who died, left the country, or live in territories under Russian occupation. And although the country's birth rate has been declining for many years – a common trend across Europe – it has now "practically collapsed."
According to the publication, "most of the men and women who die at the front are married and have children, and Ukraine is becoming a country of widows and orphans." Official statistics show that 59,000 children without biological parents currently live in Ukraine, most of them in foster families, the publication writes.
Ukraine's birth rate, or the number of children the average woman has in her lifetime, has now fallen below one, compared to 1.4 in Europe and 1.6 in the US.
About 6 million people, mostly young women and children, have fled and officially registered as refugees abroad since the start of the full-scale war in 2022. The vast majority still live abroad, and Libanova said that the longer the conflict lasts, the less likely they are to return.
"With each passing month, there is more destruction here, and on the other hand, more and more of our military migrants are adapting to their new lives abroad. Fewer and fewer are returning," she told CNN.
The huge number of migrants is also a major brain drain from Ukraine.
"I hope that the most qualified people will return. … The economy and infrastructure will need to be rebuilt. We will need workers, and mostly skilled ones. If we don't have enough such people, we will have to attract foreigners, which may not be bad. But I doubt that many qualified foreigners will come here in large numbers," she said.