why there are few men under the age of 30 in Ukraine

As of 2024, the generation of young men is the smallest in number since 1991.

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The generation of healthy men under the age of 30 is currently the smallest in the entire history of Ukraine’s independence.

The demographic crisis began in the early 1990s, writes The New York Times.

In the year of Ukraine’s independence in 1991, there were an average of 1.9 children per mother. Over the next 10 years, the birth rate decreased up to 1.1 children.

“In the 1990s, savings disappeared and wages depreciated in the economic crisis. Uncertainty and uncertainty about the future hung in the air, which “affected the reproductive behavior of the population,” – Deputy Director of the Institute of Demography and Social Research named after Mykhailo Ptuha Oleksandr Gladun told journalists.

When the children born in the first years of independence reached the age of 20, the state felt a labor shortage due to the lack of people. After the full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022, the low number of people has become a cornerstone of the issue of mobilization, the journalists add.

They note that the lowering of the conscription age for men from 27 to 25 years old can further reduce generation.

As of the third year of the full-scale invasion, the birth rate in Ukraine has almost halved, the journalists write.

Among the main reasons is the fact that about 800,000 Ukrainian women aged 18 to 34 left for the countries of the European Union. The absence of women plays a greater role in Ukrainian demography than the conscription of men into the army.

Journalists add that after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a democratic crisis was observed in many countries that were part of it, particularly in Russia.

But Ukraine’s demographic problem during the war is much more serious than Russia’s.

Since Russia has almost four times the population, this provides it with a correspondingly larger number of men.

At the same time, the media draw attention to the fact that the conscription age, starting at 25, remains high compared to other European countries and, in particular, the USA, where men can be drafted into the army from the age of 18.

Previously, ATO veteran Taras Chmut statedthat mobilization in Ukraine should take place from the age of 20, because “we lost too much time” during the 10 years of war.

We will remind that on April 11 the Verkhovna Rada voted for changes to the law on mobilization. According to him, mobilization subject to citizens aged 25 to 60 years.