Recent data revealed that Ukraine’s birth rate has fallen by 28% since the start of the war, with 38,324 fewer children born in the country in the first six months of this year than in 2021, before the Russian invasion.
While birth rates have fallen by 7% annually since 2015, according to Ukrainian data analytics firm OpenDataBot, the drop from 2021 to 2023 is the largest since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, with the next largest drop coming in 2015, in the wake of Russia’s annexation. to the island of Crimea.
The site states that the average births amounted to 16,000 children this year, compared to up to 23,000 children born each month before the Russian invasion.
Even before the war, Ukraine’s population was expected to decline by 50 percent by 2050, according to the United Nations.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, Ukraine had one of the lowest birth rates on the planet.
An estimated 6 million refugees have left Ukraine since February 2022, when Russia launched its invasion against Ukraine, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
When Ukrainians feel and see more stability, a doctor who helps run a maternity hospital in western Kiev told National Public Radio; When they feel more protected, they will want to have more children.”
