An estimated 2 to 7 million Ukrainians are living in Russia and the European Union. (The sizeable spread stems from variations in definition, source, year and season.) The country has one of the world’s largest diasporas, with 5 to 6 million Ukrainians living elsewhere around the globe, not least (although not only) because of the current trend toward emigration.
People from eastern Ukraine, Russian speakers and Ukrainians with low levels of education are gravitating toward Russia, while people from the country’s western areas and those with more education tend to move west, either to the EU or in some cases to the United States. As a result of demographic change and migration, the country’s population has been continuously declining from its 1991 level of 52 million.
