Ukraine's population fell almost by quarter since 2001: census

• "There are 37.3 million people living in Ukraine," Dmytro Dubilet, the minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, said at a press conference, representing a drop of 11.2 million or 23 percent.

KIEV: Ukraine's population has shrunk by almost a quarter since 2001, a new census showed Thursday, fuelled by migration but also because residents could not be counted in the separatist east and Moscow-annexed Crimea.

"There are 37.3 million people living in Ukraine," Dmytro Dubilet, the minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, said at a press conference, representing a drop of 11.2 million or 23 percent.

"That's the number of people who were physically present in Ukraine as of December 1, 2019," he added.

Ukraine's previous census in 2001 counted some 48.5 million inhabitants.

The latest census did not cover areas in the east that are under control of Moscow-backed separatists, nor the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

The figure also does not include Ukrainians who live abroad.

There are currently some 20 million women but only 17 million men living in Ukraine, the survey found.

A study by the Centre for Economic Strategy research centre found that 6.3 million Ukrainians left between 2002 and 2017, based on information from border officials.

Those leaving were most likely to head to neighbouring Poland and Russia to look for work, according to the study.

Before its 2014 annexation, Crimea had two  million inhabitants while the overall population of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions was close to six million people before the separatist conflict broke out.