Regional differences in population change Between the Soviet census of 1989 and the Ukrainian census of 2001, Ukraine's population declined from 51,706,600 to 48,457,020, Collectively, the net population loss in Ukraine outside the westernmost oblasts was 2,759,200, or 6.6% of the 1989 population. The total population of these regions in 2001 was 39,186,100. However, significant regional differences in birth rates may account for some of the demographic differences. In the third quarter of 2007, for instance, the highest birth rate among Ukrainian oblasts occurred in
Volyn Oblast, with a birth rate of 13.4/1,000 people, compared to the Ukrainian countrywide average of 9.6/1,000 people. Volyn's birthrate was higher than the average birth rate of any European country except Iceland and Albania. In 2007, for the first time since 1990, five Ukrainian oblasts (
Zakarpattia,
Rivne,
Volyn,
Lviv, and
Kyiv oblasts) experienced more births than deaths. This demonstrated a positive trend of increasing birthrates in the preceding years throughout Ukraine. The ratio of births to deaths in those oblasts in 2007 was 119%, 117%, 110%, 100.7%, and 108%, respectively. Notably, western Ukraine never experienced the
Holodomor, as
Poland,
Czechoslovakia, and
Romania ruled it at the time, helping to understand the more favorable demographic trends there, as the rural population was never devastated. Specifically, during the Holodomor, Poland ruled
Ivano-Frankivsk,
Lviv,
Rivne,
Ternopil, and
Volyn oblasts, whereas
Zakarpattia Oblast was under Czechoslovak rule, and Romania controlled
Chernivtsi Oblast and the
Budjak section of
Odesa Oblast. While abortion rates in the North, South, East and Center of Ukraine are relatively homogeneous, the Western region differs greatly. Overall, the abortion rate in western Ukraine is three times lower than in other regions. This is not due to increased use of modern contraceptive methods in the West, but to the fact that pregnant women in the Western regions are more likely to keep their babies. Donetsk and Dniproptrovsk oblasts in eastern and central Ukraine have the country's highest abortion rate.
Regional differences in death rates and health Death rates also vary widely by region; eastern and southern Ukraine have the highest death rates in the country, and the life expectancy for children born in Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kherson, Kropyvnytskyi, Luhansk, Mikolaiv, and Odesa oblasts is 1.5 years lower than the national average. Ukraine had a suicide rate of 16.5 per 100,000 population in 2017, a significant decrease from the suicide rate of 29.6 per 100,000 in 1998. Suicides were more frequent in the central part of the country (the highest suicide rate was in
Kirovohrad Oblast; in western Ukraine, the suicide rate was lower than the national average.
Lviv Oblast had the lowest suicide rate (5.3). Southern and eastern Ukraine also suffered from the highest rates of
HIV and
AIDS, which impacts life expectancy. In late 2000, 60% of all AIDS cases in Ukraine were concentrated in the Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk oblasts. A major reason behind the higher rates was that the urbanized and industrialized oblasts in the East and South of Ukraine suffered most from the economic crisis in the 1990s, leading to the increased spread of unemployment, alcoholism, and drug abuse, setting the conditions for a wider spread of the epidemic.
Regional differences in income The western and central oblasts of Ukraine had lower GDP per capita than Kyiv and the industrialized eastern oblasts of Ukraine. In December 2019, the average monthly salary in Ukraine was 12,264 hryvnias (519 US dollars).
Chernihiv Oblast (northern Ukraine) and
Kirovohrad Oblast (central Ukraine) had the lowest monthly salary of 8,851 and 9,450 hryvnias, respectively. In contrast, the monthly wage in the city of
Kyiv was 18,869 hryvnias per month, and in
Kyiv Oblast, 13,259 per month. In 2013, outside of the capital city of Kyiv, the wealthiest oblast was
Donetsk with an annual income of 31,048 hryvnias. But as of 2017, it ranked second poorest after
Luhansk Oblast, with annual incomes 25,278 hryvnias and 16,416 hryvnias, respectively. Both are in eastern Ukraine and sustained direct losses as a consequence of
military actions. Ukraine recorded one of the sharpest declines in poverty of any transition economy in 2001–2016. The poverty rate, measured against an absolute poverty line (below $1.25 per day, based on
World Bank numbers) fell from a high of 32 percent in 2001 to 8 percent in 2005. In terms of poverty rates, the central and northern oblasts have the country's highest poverty rates: 10.0%. The western and southern oblasts are 9.1% and 9%, respectively. Kyiv City had the lowest poverty rate: 1.4%. The percent of the population living under $5.50 a day was 19% in 2005 and dropped to 4.0 percent in 2018. ==Urbanization==