Ukraine’s population has declined since independence in 1991, as it dies more than it is born in the country. The population has dropped from over 52 million to just over 44 million (including Crimea) at the beginning of 2017. The vast majority of residents are ethnic Ukrainians, while Russians constitute a large minority group. Ukrainian is officially language but Russian has a strong position. The proportion of Russians increased during…
Read MoreSlovenia Population and Language
A large majority of the population is Slovenian. The country’s Hungarian and Italian minorities are officially recognized and have a special position. However, the largest minorities are people from other former Yugoslav republics, mainly Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. In a census in 2002, 83 percent of the residents were Slovenian, while just over 10 percent were not included in any group. More than 6,000 identified themselves as Hungarian and slightly…
Read MoreSlovakia Population and Language
The majority of the residents of Slovakia live on the plains in the south. The dominant group is the Slovak. The largest minority are the Hungarians, who mainly live near the border with Hungary. There is also a large group of Romans. In the 2011 census, two per cent of the residents stated that they were Roma, but the true proportion is assumed to be between six and nine percent.…
Read MoreRussia Population and Language
Russia’s population is unevenly distributed over the country’s vast area. Most of the population lives in the European part of the country. The population density varies from less than one resident per square kilometer in parts of Siberia to 4,900 in Moscow. Of Russia’s residents, just over four-fifths are ethnic Russians, that is, East Slavs with Russian as their mother tongue. In addition to Russians, there are many other peoples…
Read MoreRomania Population and Language
Prior to the fall of communism in 1989, Romania, with European dimensions, had a high population growth, which was partly due to an abortion ban introduced by the communist regime. Since 1990, the number of residents has steadily declined as a result of declining birth rates, rising death rates and extensive emigration. It is mainly the population of the cities that has decreased. Between the 2001 and 2011 census, the…
Read MorePoland Population and Language
The composition of the population changed radically in connection with the Second World War. Prior to that, minority groups made up nearly 30 percent of the population. In the latest census in 2011, only a few percent of the residents defined themselves as anything other than Poles. Only small groups of the population cultivate their ethnic characteristics, such as language, dialect or traditions. Minorities consist of Silesians, Kashubians, Germans, Ukrainians,…
Read MoreMoldova Population and Language
Moldova’s population has declined since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The decrease is partly due to emigration and partly because the death toll has exceeded the birth rate for most years. A clear majority of residents are Moldavians, but there are significant minorities of Russians and Ukrainians. Moldova has traditionally had a high population growth, but during the 1990s crisis in connection with the former Soviet Republic’s transition…
Read MoreKosovo Population and Language
Albanians are the dominant people group in today’s Kosovo with Serbs as the largest minority. The population is one of the youngest in Europe, about half of the population is under 25. In 2011, the first census was held since 1993. The number of residents was then stated at just over 1.7 million, which was about 20 percent lower than previously estimated. Since northern Kosovo, where many Serbs live, did…
Read MoreHungary Population and Language
The population has decreased slightly every year since 1981 as the death toll has come to exceed birth rates. At the same time, the proportion of older people in the population is increasing – almost 20 percent of the population was older than 65 in 2018 and by 2060 the proportion is expected to have risen to close to 30 percent. Seven out of ten residents live in urban areas,…
Read MoreCzech Republic Population and Language
The population is fairly evenly distributed across the country. Most of the residents live in smaller cities. Prague (Praha) is the only city with over a million residents. Birth rates are low and the proportion of older people in the population is growing. The population is increasing in Prague and in parts of Bohemia. As more people move from the Czech Republic than there, the number of residents has decreased…
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