According to the
2001 Ukrainian census,
ethnic Ukrainians accounted for 88.8% of the population of Sumy Oblast, and
ethnic Russians for 9.4%.
Language ,
Ukrainian was the native language for over 83% of Sumy Oblast's population: it was the dominant language in the absolute majority of the city, town, and village councils of the oblast.
Russian was dominant in several differently-sized zones near the border with Russia. Approximately 40% of the predominantly Russian-speaking local councils had a significant Ukrainian-speaking minority, which accounted for over 20% of the local population. Due to the
Russification of Ukraine during the Soviet era, the share of Ukrainian speakers in the population of Sumy Oblast gradually decreased, while the share of Russian speakers increased. Native language of the population of Sumy Oblast according to the results of population censuses: Native language of the population of the
raions, cities, and city councils of Sumy Oblast according to the
2001 Ukrainian census:
Ukrainian is the only official language on the whole territory of Sumy Oblast. According to a poll conducted by
Rating from 16 November to 10 December 2018 as part of the project «Portraits of Regions», 60% of the residents of Sumy Oblast believed that the Ukrainian language should be the only state language on the entire territory of Ukraine. 22% believed that Ukrainian should be the only state language, while Russian should be the second official language in some regions of the country. 10% believed that Russian should become the second state language of the country. 8% found it difficult to answer. On 26 April 2023, Sumy Oblast Military Administration approved the «Programme for the Development of the Ukrainian Language in All Spheres of Public Life in Sumy Oblast for 2023—2027», the main objective of which is to strengthen the positions 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, 75.0% of posts from Sumy Oblast were written in Ukrainian (72.5% in 2023, 55.9% in 2022, 19.4% in 2020), while 25.0% were written in Russian (27.5% in 2023, 44.1% in 2022, 80.6% in 2020). After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Sumy 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 Sumy Oblast: According to the
State Statistics Service of Ukraine, in the 2023—2024 school year, all 91,513 pupils in general secondary education institutions in Sumy Oblast were studying in classes where
Ukrainian was the language of instruction.
Age structure :
0-14 years: 12.7% (male 74,529/female 70,521) :
15-64 years: 70.8% (male 386,250/female 422,077) :
65 years and over: 16.5% (male 60,374/female 127,306) (2013 official)
Median age :
total: 42.0 years :
male: 38.6 years :
female: 45.4 years (2013 official) ==Points of interest==