Ukraine People Profile 2012

The people of Ukraine is about 45.8 million. Ethnic Ukrainians make up approximately 78% of the total; ethnic Russians number about 17%, ethnic Belarusians number about 0.6%. The industrial regions in the east and southeast are the majority heavily populated, and the people is about 69% urban. Ukrainian and Russian are the principal languages. Although Russian is very widely spoken, in the 2001 census (the new official figures) 85.2% of the ethnic Ukrainian people identified Ukrainian as their native language. There are as well small Crimean Tatar and Hellenic minorities; the former is mainly in Crimea, and the latter in the Donetsk region.

The dominant religions are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (which practices Orthodox rites but recognizes the Roman Catholic Pope as chief of the Church). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate has the major following, with significant presence in amount regions of the country except for the western oblasts of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Ternopil. The second-major Orthodox group is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, with most followers located in western and some central oblasts. The Kyiv Patriarchate was established after Ukrainian independence and declared full independence from Moscow. The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is the smallest of the three Orthodox churches, and approximately 70% of its adherents are in the western part of the country. The Russian Old Rite Orthodox Church and smaller Orthodox groups as well operate within Ukraine.

About 27% of the country's religious communities are Protestant. The Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine is the major Protestant group. Other Protestant communities include Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Calvinists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Other religious groups include Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Buddhists, and adherents of Krishna Consciousness.

About 70% of adult Ukrainians have a secondary or higher education. Ukraine has about 900 colleges and universities, of which the majority significant are in Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv. There are about 90,000 scholars in 1,300 scientific research and development institutes.