Ukraine to have 30 million people after war, demographer says

The expert believes that first and foremost it is necessary to help Ukrainians, who suffered the most from the war.

After the end of the war in Ukraine, the population may decrease to approximately 30 million people. This was stated by the deputy director of the Institute of Demography and Quality of Life Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Alexander Gladun, in an interview for RBC-Ukraine .

“You know, we need to make all our plans not for 52 million or even 42 million people. But admit and say frankly that after the war, approximately 30 million people will live in our country,” the expert shared.

The demographer believes that the country’s economy should be planned for this population size. He added that demographic policy measures should be implemented to improve the situation.

“But if we make plans taking into account the past that we will never have again, that is no longer the case. We need to start from a new point, plan our development based on new realities,” Gladun emphasized.

According to surveys, about 25% of Ukrainian refugees plan to stay abroad, the expert shared. Another 30-40% of people said they were going to return home.

Gladun called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and public organizations to pay attention to those Ukrainians who are not yet sure whether they are going to return. He is sure that such people need to be contacted and helped.

The expert believes that there is no need to allocate a lot of funds to bring Ukrainians back home. According to him, it is necessary to show that the residents of Ukraine who remained in the country and contributed to the development of the economy are no worse than those who went abroad.

Gladun noted that first and foremost, it is necessary to help Ukrainians who suffered the most from the war. In particular, he mentioned people whose homes were destroyed:

“There are approximately more than 4 million IDPs in our country. That is, these are people who abandoned their homes, but did not go abroad, but stayed here. And they also work for our economy.”

(c)UNIAN 2024