Ukraine's population fell by 3.942 million people as the result of the high mortality rate during the Holodomor (artificially-created famine), according to a study of the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
“When we were making calculations we found out that an increased mortality rate was visible not only in 1932-33, but also in 1934, and therefore we took that year into account as well. The deficit in births was also evenly distributed between 1933 and 1934,” leading researcher at the department of demographic modeling and forecasting of the institute Natalia Levchuk said at a press conference in Kyiv on Nov. 27.
She noted that the losses amounted to 13 percent of the total number of population of Ukraine at the time. The loss of the rural population was 3.655 million people. Around one million children under ten years of age died during the famine.
A total of 90 percent of losses occurred in 1933. The most deadly period was from March to August 1933, when 84 percent of malnutrition deaths in 1932-34 occurred.
Of the eight regions of the then territory of Ukraine, Kyiv and Kharkiv regions suffered the worst losses, Chernihiv and Donetsk regions were least affected.
Head of the department of demographic modeling and forecasting of the institute Oleksandr Hladun noted that were it not for the Holodomor, the population of Ukraine would be around four million larger than it is now.
