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The least number of children are born in the eastern regions of Ukraine
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
According to the birth rate, the regions of Ukraine are divided into three groups.
The first is the depressive region with respect to reproductive activity, which includes the eastern regions. They are characterized by extremely low birth rates, which do not even half ensure the restoration of the population. These are Donetsk, Lugansk, Sumy, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Poltava regions, the Ministry of Health notes.
The second group is the western regions, where the birth rate is relatively high. They are characterized by relatively high total fertility rates - 1.2-1.6 children per woman. The Ministry of Health emphasized that the western regions still have traditions of having two children, the lowest abortion rates in Ukraine, and the proportion of extramarital births is half as high (compared to the national level).
The third group, the department notes, includes demographically old regions of the center and north, in which birth rates and population regeneration rates are at the level of the Ukrainian average.
The Ministry of Health also explained that the decline in birth rates and the loss of traditions of having many children is a fundamental trend of our time. The demographic situation in economically developed countries is also characterized by a decline in birth rates to a low level, but it is accompanied by a significant increase in average life expectancy, which restrains depopulation, the department explained.
The Ministry of Health notes that Ukraine is losing even the positions it has already won in terms of prolonging human life. The main factor in the reduction in the number of births in Ukraine has become a noticeable decrease in the indicators of women's reproductive activity, the Ministry of Health is convinced.
The department reported that in 2011, 29.9 thousand more children were born than in 2007. The overall birth rate of the population increased: from 10.2% in 2007 to 11.0% in 2011. The increase in the birth rate over the past five years is primarily a consequence of the increase in the number of potential mothers – women of childbearing age born in the first half of the 80s, the department emphasized.