General Information

Capital:

Kiev 2,635,000 (1995 est.)

Area:

603,700 sq km (233,090 sq mi)

Form of government

Republic

GDP per capita

Purchasing power parity-$2,200 (1999 est.)

Population

49,811,174 (July 1999 est.)

Ethnic composition

Ukrainian - 73%

Russian - 22%

Jewish - 1%

Other - 4%

Note: The majority of Russians live in the Eastern Ukraine and occupy six oblasts (regions): Donetsk, Luhansk, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Sumy.

Jews have lived on Ukrainian land for many ages. They live mostly in Kyiv, Odesa, Chernivtsi, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk. The Association of Jewish Organizations unites 120 organizations, which have a vast network of regional affiliations.

Romanians make up another portion of ethnic minorities in the Ukraine. They live mostly in Chernivtsi (100,300) and the Transcarpathian regions. The Moldovans (342,500) live in Southwest Ukraine, and Belarusians (440,000) live mostly in the Donetsk Basin, Rivne, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Crimea. Other ethic minorities include Bulgarians (240,000), Polish (219,000), Hungarians (163,000), Greeks (104,000) (of which 2.8% live in the autonomous Republic of Crimea), Armenians (54,200) and Roma (47,900).

Updated (February 2005)

THE ROMANIAN MINORITY IN UKRAINE

There are 150,989 Romanian ethnics living in the country (0.33% of the total population) and other 258,619 people claimed they are Romanians/Moldavians. Non-devised artificially in two groups, the Romanian-speaking population would have been the third biggest ethnic group in Ukraine (after the Ukrainians and the Russians).

The numerical distribution of the Romanians:

• The Cernauti Region — 208,800 Romanian speakers (19.78% of the region's population) out of which 141,600 (12.5%) are Romanians and 67,200 Moldavians.

   

• The Transcarpatica Region — 32,152 Romanian ethnics (mainly living in Teaciv rayon).

   

• The Odesa Region — 123,751 persons declared to be Moldavians and 724 Romanians.

A small number of Romanian-speaking population live in different places across Ukraine.

Source: Minelres News, November 24, 2004, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-November/003694.html, "The Romanian Minority in Ukraine", the Center for the Prevention of Conflicts and Early Warning, Bucharest, Romania, June 19, 2004

Official Language(s)

Ukrainian

Minority Language(s)

Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Ruthenian, other

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