GENEVA, OCT 23 – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said yesterday that Ukraine’s population has decreased by an estimated 10 million since 2014, and the situation is worsening after the Russian offensive began, the agency reported. Anatolia.
Florence Bauer, UNFPA’s Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia said in a United Nations (UN) briefing in Geneva that eight million of the population declines occurred since the Moscow-Kyiv conflict in 2022.
“This also represents a huge loss in the human capital that is so necessary for the recovery and building of Ukraine’s future,” Bauer said.
He pointed out that from 2022, the birth rate drops to one child per woman ‘the lowest fertility rate in Europe and one of the lowest in the world.’
Meanwhile, millions of people have been internally displaced within the country and about 6.7 million people have fled abroad as refugees, he said.
Some regions have experienced depopulation as young people leave the area, he added, with large numbers of residents killed as a direct result of the conflict.
“To effectively plan for Ukraine’s recovery, a population census is essential, as soon as the security situation permits,” he said, noting that the last census was conducted in 2001, making updated demographic data critical. – Named