Is Ukraine an Attractive Place to Move To?

Over the past six years, almost 40,000 foreigners have become residents of Ukraine. In the meantime, around 517,000 residents have moved out of Ukraine between 2015 and 2020.

The number of foreigners who want to live in Ukraine has increased over this period. Specifically, 6,500 people became residents in 2015, and then the number climbed to 7,400 in 2019.

With the imposition of quarantine measures, the number of people who want to live in Ukraine has slightly decreased. For example, 4,532 foreigners received citizenship in 2020.

ImageData

Number of foreigners that became Ukrainians

Year	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Foreigners that obtained Ukrainian citizenship	6,503	6,783	7,403	7,476	7,048	4,532

Between 2015 and 2020, new Ukrainian citizens most often were coming from former USSR republics. The top countries are the Russian Federation (15,944 new citizens), Moldova (3,790), Azerbaijan (2,721), Armenia (2,172), and Uzbekistan (1,543). The least new residents came from the Baltic countries: Latvia (61 people), Lithuania (53), and Estonia (16).

Besides the ex-USSR migrants, Ukrainian citizenship is wanted by residents of Vietnam (1,419), Syria (1,054), Afghanistan (702), Hungary (530), and Turkey (410).

However, the number of new Ukrainian residents does not compensate for Ukrainians who have moved out. Since 2010, the number of emigrants has remained above those who move to the country.

ImageData

Over the past six years, more than 86,000 fellow citizens on average have been taking one-way tickets every year. And with every year, this number has been rising. According to the customs service, some 500,000 people did not return to the country. It is equal to the difference between people that left the country and those who returned.

This year, once the borders were opened, the outflow of citizens reached a record high—the difference between emigrants and immigrants rose to 580,000. A comparable number was recorded only in 2014 when this difference was 650,000 people.