Ukraine People.
Who are they? How do they live?

Ukraine people. Ukrainian nation. Several years ago one of the Ukrainian TV stations a few times a day run the slogan: "We are 52 Million!" Perhaps, it intended to demonstrate that Ukraine is an independent and prosper state having vast territory and growing population.

Ukraine people:
Boys in national costumes. Source: http:/axiommedia.org

Alas... according to the All-Ukrainian Population Census 2001 data, the total number of the actual population of Ukraine at the date of 5 December 2001 accounted for 48.457 thousand people. It means that during past 10 - 12 years the population of Ukraine decreased by more than 3 million people.

There are a lot of reasons which caused the population drop in Ukraine. There are all kinds of optimistic and pessimistic prognoses that are made by experts in demography. Only time will tell which of these predictions will be realized.

The fact which nobody can doubt about is that once again Ukraine is experiencing new difficult period of its turbulent history.

During more than 700 years, beginning with the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the early 13-th century, Ukraine people went through extremely difficult periods of their history.

Ukrainian people are survivors. Only lazy didn't try to wipe them out from their land. During more than 7 centuries Ukraine's neighbors have always considered that this country has too many Ukrainians in it. Ukrainians deserve gratitude for the fact that they managed to survive. How could they do it?

After the collapse of the Soviet system the rules of life suddenly had changed. Many Ukraine people have been plunged into poverty, especially the older ones. Most people in Ukraine have hope that "tomorrow will be better than today". They had good "training" during those 700 years.

Since time immemorial Ukrainian people have been known as kind-hearted, friendly, hospitable and well wishing hard workers. They are emotional and tend to be opened to anything that claims to bring any balance and stability in their life: Christianity and eastern religions, horoscopes and fortune-telling, alcoholism and narcotics.

It is sad, but unavoidable situation. People need stability in their lives. Everybody tries to look for it in his own way. That's why Ukraine has such a large-scale emigration of workers.

There are only 37 million native Ukrainians living in Ukraine. 20 million Ukrainians live in 46 different countries of the world. Largest Ukrainian community outside of Ukraine is in Russia (about 3 million ethnic Ukrainians).

Ukraine has always had an educated work force and been rich in human talents. However, many specialists no longer work in the field for which they were trained.

Here is a short list of famous Ukraine people who brought significant contribution to the world culture. All of them are either ethnical Ukrainians, or were born, lived , worked in Ukraine.

Ukraine people:Sergey Korolev,
first spacecraft designer.

• Sergey Korolev, first spacecraft designer
• Oleg Antonov, aircraft designer
• Igor Sikorsky, inventor of helicopter
• Ilya Mechnikov, microbiologist, Nobel Prize in Medicine (1908)
• Vladimir Vernadsky, mineralogist, biochemist
• Volodymyr Filatov , ophthalmologist
• Golda Meir, Prime minister of Israel

• Population:
  46,710,816 (July 2006 est.)
• Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.1% (male 3,377,868/female 3,203,738) 15-64 years: 69.3% (male 15,559,998/female 16,831,486) 65 years and over: 16.6% (male 2,635,651/female 5,102,075) (2006 est.)
• Median age:
  total: 39.2 years male: 35.9 years female: 42.2 years (2006 est.)
• Population growth rate:
  -0.6% (2006 est.)
• Birth rate:
  8.82 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)
• Sex ratio:
  14.39 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)
• Death rate:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.52 male(s)/female total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
• Infant mortality rate
  total: 9.9 deaths/1,000 live births male: 11.48 deaths/1,000 live births female: 8.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)





• Life expectancy at birth
  total population: 69.98 years male: 64.71 years female: 75.59 years (2006 est.)
• Total fertility rate:
  1.17 children born/woman (2006 est.)
• Ethnic groups:
  Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian 0.3%, Romanian 0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001 census)
• Religions:
  Ukrainian Orthodox - Kiev Patriarchate 19%, Orthodox (no particular jurisdiction) 16%, Ukrainian Orthodox - Moscow Patriarchate 9%, Ukrainian Greek Catholic 6%, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox 1.7%, Protestant, Jewish, none 38% (2004 est.)
• Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99.7% male: 99.8% female: 99.6% (2003 est.)

Country facts Information Courtesy: CIA Worldbook.

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