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Map Explainer: Key Facts About Ukraine

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Map Explainer: Key Facts About Ukraine

The modern state of Ukraine was formed nearly 30 years ago after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, the country has often made headlines due to political instability and the looming threat of a Russian invasion.

In the map graphic above, we examine Ukraine from a structural point of view. What’s the country’s population composition? What drives the country’s economy? And most importantly, why is the country important within a global context?

Where Do People Live in Ukraine?

With a population of nearly 44 million people, Ukraine is the eighth-most populous country in Europe. For perspective, that is slightly smaller than Spain, and four times larger than Greece.

As the cartogram below demonstrates, a large portion of the country’s population is located in and around the capital Kyiv, along with the Donetsk region—which is front and center in the current conflict with Russia.

Ukraine population cartogram

Not surprisingly, many of the country’s Russian speaking citizens live on the eastern side of the country, near the Russian border.

Key Facts About Ukraine’s Demographics

Ukrainians make up almost 78% of the total population, while Russians represent around 17% of the population, making it the single-largest Russian diaspora in the world.

Other minorities include:

  • Belarusians: 0.6%
  • Bulgarians: 0.4%
  • Hungarians: 0.3%
  • Crimean Tatars: 0.5%
  • Romanians: 0.3%
  • Poles: 0.3%
  • Jews: 0.2%

The country’s population has been declining since the 1990s because of a high emigration rate, and high death rates coupled with a low birth rate.

The majority of the population is Christian (80%), with 60% declaring adherence to one or another strand of the Orthodox Church.

Ukraine’s Economy: An Overview

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine turned over thousands of atomic weapons in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the United States, and other countries. However, the defense industry continues to be a strategically important sector and a large employer in Ukraine. The country exports weapons to countries like India, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

Furthermore, Ukraine is rich in natural resources, particularly in mineral deposits. It possesses the world’s largest reserves of commercial-grade iron ore—30 billion tonnes of ore or around one-fifth of the global total. It’s also worth noting that Ukraine ranks second in terms of known natural gas reserves in Europe, which today remain largely untapped.

Ukraine’s mostly flat geography and high-quality soil composition make the country a big regional agricultural player. The country is the world’s fifth-largest exporter of wheat and the world’s largest exporter of seed oils like sunflower and rapeseed.

Coal mining, chemicals, mechanical products (aircraft, turbines, locomotives and tractors) and shipbuilding are also important sectors of the Ukrainian economy.

The Bear in the Room

Given the country’s location and history, it’s nearly impossible to talk about Ukraine without mentioning nearby Russia.

The country shares borders with Russia both to the east and northeast. For context, a car trip from Moscow to one of the Ukrainian border cities, Shostka, takes around 8 hours. To the Northwest, Ukraine also shares borders with Belarus—a country that is closely aligned with the Kremlin.

To the southeast is Crimea, a peninsula entirely surrounded by both the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. In 2014, Russia annexed the peninsula and established two federal subjects, the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. The annexation was widely condemned around the world, and the territories are recognized by most of the international community as being part of Ukraine.

The region was of particular interest to Russia since Moscow depends on the Black Sea for access to the Mediterranean. The Port of Sevastopol, on the southwest edge of Crimea, is one of the few ice-free deepwater ports available to Russia in the region.

Due to ongoing tensions between the two countries, Ukraine has been seeking to reduce Russia’s leverage over its economy. As a result, China and Poland have surpassed Russia as Ukraine’s largest country trading partners in recent years.

However, Ukraine still remains an important route for Russian gas that heats millions of homes, generates electricity, and powers factories in Europe. The continent gets nearly 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia.

Furthermore, Ukraine is connected to the same power grid as Russia, so it remains dependent on Moscow in the event of a shortfall. Even as conflict heats up, the two countries still share economic links, which will influence how the situation unfolds.

Conflict in the Donbas Region

Ukraine stands at the center of a geopolitical rivalry between western powers and Russia, and that rivalry is flaring up once again.

Two regions along the Russian border—Donetsk and Luhansk—have been a conflict zone since 2014, when pro-Russian separatists began clashing with government forces. The map below shows the relative contact zone between the two opposing forces.

donbas region conflict zone

ZomBear, Marktaff, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Currently Russia has troops and military equipment amassed at various points along the border between the two countries, as well as in neighboring Belarus.

In recent days, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, recognizing them as independent states. This recognition serves as a definitive end point to the seven-year peace deal known as the Minsk agreement.

As this conflict heats up, it remains to be seen what will happen to the roughly 5 million people who live in the Donbas region.

Note: As of February 23rd, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale military operation into Ukraine. The situation is still evolving rapidly.

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Misc

Mapped: Asia’s Population Patterns by Density

We visualize Asia’s population patterns to see where 4.6 billion people, or two-thirds of the world’s population, actually live.

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A cropped map of Asia's population patterns, visualizing where people actually live.

A Map of Asia’s Population Patterns by Density

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Nearly 60% of the world’s 8 billion population lives in Asia: a vast continent sprawling over 44 million km², home to sprawling megacities, high-altitude deserts, the world’s biggest plateau, and impenetrable rainforests.

We visualize Asia’s population patterns using data from WorldPop—a research group based out of the University of Southampton that tracks population growth and movement across the globe.

A spike on the map denotes higher population density.

Other figures in this article are sourced from World Population Review (population numbers) and the World Bank (area).

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population

Immediately the map visualizes at impressive scale a rather well-known fact: that India and China together account for 35% of the world’s population just by themselves.

Pakistan (ranked 4th in population) and Bangladesh (ranked 5th) together account for another 400 million people.

The role of the Himalayas in this distribution is understated: the mountain range is a source of ten major rivers, flowing to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China, providing fresh water to 1.3 billion people in its watershed.

RankCountryPopulationArea
1🇮🇳 India1,437,982,6613,287,260 km²
2🇨🇳 China1,425,317,7209,562,910 km²
3🇮🇩 Indonesia279,119,6261,916,907 km²
4🇵🇰 Pakistan243,772,596796,100 km²
5🇧🇩 Bangladesh174,173,808147,570 km²
6🇷🇺 Russia144,101,44917,098,250 km²
7🇯🇵 Japan122,833,540377,974 km²
8🇵🇭 Philippines119,106,224300,000 km²
9🇻🇳 Vietnam99,308,524331,340 km²
10🇮🇷 Iran89,626,6611,745,150 km²
11🇹🇷 Turkey86,127,389785,350 km²
12🇹🇭 Thailand71,863,281513,120 km²
13🇲🇲 Myanmar54,849,472676,590 km²
14🇰🇷 South Korea51,756,284100,430 km²
15🇮🇶 Iraq46,225,266435,050 km²
16🇦🇫 Afghanistan43,026,322652,860 km²
17🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia37,473,9292,149,690 km²
18🇺🇿 Uzbekistan35,522,965448,924 km²
19🇾🇪 Yemen34,982,136555,000 km²
20🇲🇾 Malaysia34,562,556330,411 km²
21🇳🇵 Nepal31,136,781147,180 km²
22🇰🇵 North Korea26,220,850120,540 km²
23🇸🇾 Syria24,010,759185,180 km²
24🇹🇼 Taiwan23,942,52236,197 km²
25🇱🇰 Sri Lanka21,933,15565,610 km²
26🇰🇿 Kazakhstan19,764,1582,724,900 km²
27🇰🇭 Cambodia17,071,236181,040 km²
28🇯🇴 Jordan11,368,89889,318 km²
29🇦🇿 Azerbaijan10,448,63686,600 km²
30🇹🇯 Tajikistan10,277,238141,379 km²
31🇦🇪 UAE9,569,30098,648 km²
32🇮🇱 Israel9,272,22822,070 km²
33🇱🇦 Laos7,736,681236,800 km²
34🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan6,807,948199,950 km²
35🇹🇲 Turkmenistan6,573,631488,100 km²
36🇸🇬 Singapore6,119,203728 km²
37🇵🇸 Palestine5,494,9636,025 km²
38🇱🇧 Lebanon5,257,50110,450 km²
39🇴🇲 Oman4,692,824309,500 km²
40🇰🇼 Kuwait4,337,70317,820 km²
41🇬🇪 Georgia3,720,47769,700 km²
42🇲🇳 Mongolia3,480,0401,564,116 km²
43🇦🇲 Armenia2,777,97929,743 km²
44🇶🇦 Qatar2,730,86411,490 km²
45🇧🇭 Bahrain1,494,745790 km²
46🇹🇱 Timor-Leste1,374,02514,870 km²
47🇨🇾 Cyprus1,260,1389,250 km²
48🇧🇹 Bhutan790,91838,390 km²
49🇲🇻 Maldives518,765300 km²
50🇧🇳 Brunei454,8695,770 km²

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Other countries that are covered by red: Indonesia (ranked 4th in population), Japan (ranked 7th), and the Philippines (8th), are all some of Asia’s most populous countries.

They also have some of the world’s densest cities:

  • Manila: 42,857 people/km²
  • Mumbai: 28,195 people/km²
  • Karachi: 24,000 people/km²
  • Jakarta: 14,464 people/km²

Tokyo and Beijing—despite being some of the world’s largest cities by population—record lower densities in comparison, helped by their much larger administrative areas.

But when sorted by average population density across the entire country, the ranks look a little bit different.

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population Density

The city state of Singapore is the densest country in Asia, with more than 8,000 people/km². Far behind it, the similarly sized in area Bahrain has one-sixth the population and ranks second (1,892/km²) in Asia’s densest countries.

RankCountryPopulation Density
1🇸🇬 Singapore8,405 people/km2
2🇧🇭 Bahrain1,892 people/km2
3🇲🇻 Maldives1,729 people/km2
4🇧🇩 Bangladesh1,180 people/km2
5🇵🇸 Palestine912 people/km2
6🇹🇼 Taiwan661 people/km2
7🇰🇷 South Korea515 people/km2
8🇱🇧 Lebanon503 people/km2
9🇮🇳 India437 people/km2
10🇮🇱 Israel420 people/km2
11🇵🇭 Philippines397 people/km2
12🇱🇰 Sri Lanka334 people/km2
13🇯🇵 Japan325 people/km2
14🇵🇰 Pakistan306 people/km2
15🇻🇳 Vietnam300 people/km2
16🇰🇼 Kuwait243 people/km2
17🇶🇦 Qatar238 people/km2
18🇰🇵 North Korea218 people/km2
19🇳🇵 Nepal212 people/km2
20🇨🇳 China149 people/km2
21🇮🇩 Indonesia146 people/km2
22🇹🇭 Thailand140 people/km2
23🇨🇾 Cyprus136 people/km2
24🇸🇾 Syria130 people/km2
25🇯🇴 Jordan127 people/km2
26🇦🇿 Azerbaijan120 people/km2
27🇹🇷 Turkey110 people/km2
28🇮🇶 Iraq106 people/km2
29🇲🇾 Malaysia105 people/km2
30🇦🇪 UAE97 people/km2
31🇦🇲 Armenia94 people/km2
32🇰🇭 Cambodia94 people/km2
33🇹🇱 Timor-Leste92 people/km2
34🇲🇲 Myanmar81 people/km2
35🇧🇳 Brunei79 people/km2
36🇺🇿 Uzbekistan79 people/km2
37🇹🇯 Tajikistan73 people/km2
38🇦🇫 Afghanistan66 people/km2
39🇾🇪 Yemen63 people/km2
40🇬🇪 Georgia54 people/km2
41🇮🇷 Iran51 people/km2
42🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan34 people/km2
43🇱🇦 Laos33 people/km2
44🇧🇹 Bhutan21 people/km2
45🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia17 people/km2
46🇴🇲 Oman15 people/km2
47🇹🇲 Turkmenistan13 people/km2
48🇷🇺 Russia8 people/km2
49🇰🇿 Kazakhstan7 people/km2
50🇲🇳 Mongolia2 people/km2

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Bangladesh, with 1,180 people/km², has the rare distinction of being a top five Asian country by both population and average population density.

Meanwhile, India is 9th in population density (437 people/km²), its large landmass bringing down the average considerably.

Similarly, China nearly breaks into the top 20 with a population density of 149 people/km². Despite its vast population, the country’s immense size presents a challenge, particularly in its western regions, which are largely inhospitable to substantial human settlement due to the presence of mountains, the Tibetan plateau, and two deserts.

At the bottom of the rankings, Mongolia (2 people/km²) and Kazakhstan (7 people/km²) are some of the least dense countries in the world.

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