Deaths in Ukraine nearly four times higher than births — Opendatabot

The birthrate in Ukraine continues to fall. Compared with the first half of 2025, the number of newborns dropped by 16%. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war, the number of births has fallen by half.

Ukraine now records about 12,000 births per month on average. Ten years ago, the figure was around 32,000 a month.

The fewest children are being born in front-line regions. In Donetsk Oblast, births have fallen threefold, while in Zaporizhzhia Oblast the drop reached 23%. The number of newborns also declined sharply in relatively safer regions, including the Vinnytsia, Lviv and Ternopil oblasts, where the decline was about 20%.

Kyiv led the country in total births, with 8,352 newborns — about one in every nine babies born in Ukraine. Despite the decline, Lviv Oblast ranked second with 6,617 births. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, with 5,611, and Odesa Oblast, with 5,450, were also among the leaders.

In the first six months of the year, Ukraine recorded 259,853 deaths. That figure was up 4% from the same period last year. Opendatabot said it was the first official increase in deaths in the past five years.

The largest increase in deaths was recorded in the capital, where the total rose 11% to 20,121 in the first half of 2026. In absolute terms, however, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast recorded the highest number of deaths, at 28,386 — meaning about one in every nine deaths in the country occurred there.

The balance between births and deaths has worsened sharply, with deaths now roughly four times higher than births. The worst situation is in front-line regions: in Donetsk Oblast there was one newborn for every 19 deaths, in Kherson Oblast one to 14, and in Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv oblasts one to six.

The most favorable ratios were recorded in Rivne, Volyn, and Zakarpattia oblasts, where there were two deaths for every one newborn.