According to the
2001 Ukrainian census,
ethnic Ukrainians accounted for 13.9% of the population of Khmelnytskyi Oblast,
ethnic Russians for 3.6%, and
ethnic Poles for 1.6%. Khmelnytskyi Oblast's population is 1,401,140 as of January 1, 2004. As of 2002, the oblast ranks 13th by population in Ukraine. The population density is 69.5/km2. Pensioners make up 453,800 thousand people or 31,7% of population. The
birth rate per 1,000 residents is 8.3, and the
death rate — per 1000 residents – 16.1. The urban population, according to the
2001 Ukrainian Census data, accounted for 729,600 people, or 51%, and the rural population — for 701,200 people, or 49%. According to the data, the number of men accounted for 659,900 people, or 46.1%, that of women — 770,900 people, or 53.9%.
Language ,
Ukrainian was the native language for over 95% of Khmelnytskyi Oblast's population: it was the dominant language in all of the city, town, and village councils of the oblast. Due to the
Russification of Ukraine during the Soviet era, the share of Ukrainian speakers in the population of Khmelnytskyi Oblast gradually decreased between the 1970 and 1989 censuses, while the share of Russian speakers increased. Native language of the population of Khmelnytskyi Oblast according to the results of population censuses: Native language of the population of the
raions and cities of Khmelnytskyi Oblast according to the
2001 Ukrainian census:
Ukrainian is the only official language on the whole territory of Khmelnytskyi Oblast. According to a poll conducted by
Rating from 16 November to 10 December 2018 as part of the project «Portraits of Regions», 85% of the residents of Khmelnytskyi Oblast believed that the Ukrainian language should be the only state language on the entire territory of Ukraine. 8% believed that Ukrainian should be the only state language, while Russian should be the second official language in some regions of the country. 3% believed that Russian should become the second state language of the country. 4% found it difficult to answer. On 15 June 2022, a moratorium on the public use of Russian-language cultural products was imposed in Khmelnytskyi Oblast by a decision of the
Khmelnytskyi Oblast Council. In 2023, Khmelnytskyi Oblast Military Administration approved the «Programme of development and functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language in all spheres of public life in Khmelnytskyi Oblast for 2023—2025», the main purpose of which is to strengthen the position of the Ukrainian language in various spheres of public life in the oblast. According to the research of the
Content Analysis Centre, conducted from 15 August to 15 September 2024, the topic of which was the ratio of Ukrainian and Russian languages in the Ukrainian segment of
social media, 88.8% of posts from Khmelnytskyi Oblast were written in Ukrainian (86.0% in 2023, 77.9% in 2022, 41.8% in 2020), while 11.2% were written in Russian (14.0% in 2023, 22.1% in 2022, 58.2% in 2020). After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, as well as Ukraine as a whole, experienced a gradual
Ukrainization of the education system, which had been
Russified during the Soviet era. Dynamics of the ratio of the
languages of instruction in general secondary education institutions in Khmelnytskyi Oblast: According to the
State Statistics Service of Ukraine, in the 2023–2024 school year, of the 135,705 pupils in general secondary education institutions in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, 135,475 (99.83%) were studying in classes where
Ukrainian was the language of instruction, while 230 (0.17%) were studying in classes where
Polish was the language of instruction.
Age structure :
0-14 years: 15.1% (male 101,597/female 95,783) :
15-64 years: 68.5% (male 435,464/female 463,058) :
65 years and over: 16.4% (male 69,479/female 145,420) (2013 official)
Median age :
total: 40.4 years :
male: 37.1 years :
female: 43.6 years (2013 official) ==Economy==