According to the
2001 Ukrainian census,
ethnic Ukrainians accounted for 91.4% of the population of Poltava Oblast, and
ethnic Russians for 7.2%. , its population was 1,400,000 and
population density was 49 people per 1 km2.
Language ,
Ukrainian was the native language for over 90% of Poltava 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 Poltava Oblast gradually decreased, while the share of Russian speakers increased. Native language of the population of Poltava Oblast according to the results of population censuses: Native language of the population of the
raions, cities and city councils of Poltava Oblast according to the
2001 Ukrainian census:
Ukrainian is the only official language on the whole territory of Poltava Oblast. According to a poll conducted by
Rating from 16 November to 10 December 2018 as part of the project «Portraits of Regions», 80% of the residents of Poltava Oblast believed that the Ukrainian language should be the only state language on the entire territory of Ukraine. 9% believed that Ukrainian should be the only state language, while Russian should be the second official language in some regions of the country. 8% believed that Russian should become the second state language of the country. 3% found it difficult to answer. On 3 December 2024,
Poltava Oblast Council approved the «Programme for the Development and Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language in All Spheres of Public Life in Poltava Oblast for 2025—2030», the main objectives of which are to strengthen the positions of the Ukrainian language in various spheres of public life in the oblast and to
Ukrainianize the
refugees from other regions of Ukraine. 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, 76.0% of posts from Poltava Oblast were written in Ukrainian (63.9% in 2023, 60.0% in 2022, 15.5% in 2020), while 24.0% were written in Russian (36.1% in 2023, 40.0% in 2022, 84.5% in 2020). After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Poltava 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 Poltava Oblast: According to the
State Statistics Service of Ukraine, in the 2023—2024 school year, all 134,575 pupils in general secondary education institutions in Poltava Oblast were studying in classes where
Ukrainian was the language of instruction.
Age structure :
0–14 years: 13.2% (male 99,444/female 93,949) :
15–64 years: 69.9% (male 483,389/female 530,911) :
65 years and over: 16.9% (male 81,435/female 164,861) (2013 official)
Median age :
total: 41.4 years :
male: 38.0 years :
female: 44.7 years (2013 official) ==Points of interest==