Ukraine has lost an entire generation in the four-year war with Russia and, if the conflict continues for another two years, it will lose another one.
The latest demographic data and international estimates highlight a huge hole that has appeared in Ukraine’s demographic pyramid at 25 years of age. The number of deaths in the war remains a closely guarded state secret, but the horrific losses Ukraine has suffered shows up clearly in the demographic data. Ukraine is in the midst of a long-term population collapse unprecedented in Europe outside wartime.
The results are worse than the same demographic dent that appeared in Russia’s demographic pyramid from the chaos of the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union when male life expectancy fell to a mere 56-years-old – but Ukraine’s war induced losses are far worse. A healthy population pyramid should be a triangle.
Hellbound and Down 