Ukraine is a country, the second largest among European countries, located in its eastern part.
General demographic and geographical characteristics
The population is about 43 million. Throughout our planet, this is the thirty-second place in terms of the number of inhabitants among all other states. Countries such as Moldova and Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, Poland, Belarus and Russia are its neighbors.
In its southern part, the territory is washed by the Black and Azov Seas. Basically, the area is flat and sometimes hilly, and only five percent are mountains, the Carpathian Mountains (with the highest point of 2061 meters - Goverla) and the Crimean (the highest point is Roman-Kosh, 1545 meters).
Briefly about the wealth of natural resources
Of the one hundred and twenty kinds of minerals that are known to man and he uses them, 97 are here. Five percent of the world's reserves - this is the amount of iron ore concentrated in the lands of Ukraine. In addition, there are large deposits of coal, the largest deposits of sulfur in the world, mercury ores (second place). A huge number of non-metallic minerals widely used in the construction industry. These are clay, limestone, tuffs, marble, basalt, gypsum, chalk, marl. By reserves of table salt, graphite, kaolin, Ukraine is among the leading countries of the world and Europe in particular. And this is not the whole list of what is rich in Ukrainian land.
Population concentration
In the cities of Ukraine, of which 460, almost 69% of the population lives. The remaining 31% is accounted for by the population of the urban settlement (urban-type settlements, the number is 885) and rural settlements, of which over 28 thousand. In small villages, the main occupation is farming, which has all the favorable conditions for development and high productivity. These are climatic conditions and soil quality (in Ukraine there is a third of arable land throughout Europe). Only the attitude of some people towards agriculture is unfavorable.
The government pays little attention to this issue, the villagers do not have much support, therefore, on an industrial scale, agriculture is partially developed, in the field of sowing - grain, corn. Livestock is mainly at the level of providing for their own family. In cities, there is a concentration on different types of industry.
Cities that are largest in area
In terms of area among Ukrainian cities, Kiev is in the first place the capital, and its territory is 870.5 km square.
The following five cities have about 400 km square. These are Makeevka (Donetsk region), Gorlovka (Donetsk region), Kryvyi Rih (Dnepropetrovsk region), Dnepropetrovsk and Donetsk itself. Their area is 425.7 km2, 422 km2, 410 km2, 405 km2. and 385 km sq. respectively. In addition to Kiev, the largest cities of Ukraine have such a large area due to the highly developed industrial activity. So, in Makeevka there are about twenty factories and plants focused on heavy industry (ferrous metallurgy, coal mining, mechanical engineering) and food enterprises. Together with Donetsk, these two cities are the largest industry hub in Ukraine. In Gorlovka there are more than fifty different enterprises of the chemical, coal, food, machine-building and processing industries. Kryvyi Rih is the center of the most important raw material base of metallurgy. Dnepropetrovsk with its 200 enterprises in thirteen industries produces 4.5% of all industrial production in Ukraine. As for Kiev, it is a center not only for industry, but also for other issues, such as politics, culture, science, transport, religion.
In the top ten, which are the largest cities of Ukraine by area, are: in seventh place - Kharkov (350 km sq.), Eighth place behind Zaporozhye (331 km sq.), Ninth - Lugansk (269 km sq.), And Nikolaev enters the top ten (253 km sq.).
Which cities have the most inhabitants?
The largest cities in Ukraine in terms of population are again headed by Kiev - almost 2.9 million people, according to the latest data. The next, having half the value from the previous one, is Kharkov - 1.45 million people, then - Odessa (1.014 million), Dnepropetrovsk (987 thousand), and closes the top five in the capital of the self-proclaimed DPR - Donetsk - with a population of 933 thousands of people. In the top ten, which are the largest cities of Ukraine by population, also appear:
- Zaporozhye (762 thousand).
- Lviv (729 thousand).
- Krivoy Rog (647 thousand).
- Nikolaev (494 thousand).
- Mariupol (455 thousand).
The number of large cities in Ukraine, and these are those with a population of 250-500 thousand (16 such), is about 5 million people, which is over 11% of the total population of the country.
In general, the ten, which are the largest cities in Ukraine, are as follows.
| Town | Number of population, mln. | Town | The size of the territory, km sq. |
| Kiev | 2.9 | Kiev | 870.5 |
| Kharkov | 1.43 | Makeevka | 425.7 |
| Odessa | 1.014 | Horlivka | 422 |
| Dnepropetrovsk | 0.987 | Krivoy Rog | 410 |
| Donetsk | 0.933 | Dnepropetrovsk | 405 |
| Zaporozhye | 0.762 | Donetsk | 385 |
| Lviv | 0.729 | Kharkov | 350 |
| Krivoy Rog | 0.647 | Zaporozhye | 331 |
| Nikolaev | 0.494 | Lugansk | 269 |
| Mariupol | 0.455 | Nikolaev | 253 |
The population of small towns
The places with the smallest population are the tragically known Pripyat (no one lives in this city due to the close proximity to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant) and Chernobyl, where about five hundred people live on a rotational basis. They are responsible for ensuring security in the area, for working at facilities in the exclusion zone, and people who decided to return to their hometown, despite the risk and danger, also live here.
This is followed by small cities, where the population reaches values from about two to five thousand people. It:
- Berestechko and Ustilug in the Volyn region.
- Baturin in the Chernihiv region.
- Skalat in the Ternopil region.
- Svyatogorsk in the Donetsk region.
Although according to the legislation of Ukraine, you can assign the status of a city to a village with a population of more than ten thousand. But in a country with such a rich history, there is room for exceptions based on the historical significance of cities. Also, those settlements that previously had the number of inhabitants above the required minimum, but over time, the number fell due to the level of mortality and migration of residents to other cities and countries, remain cities.
World Ranking
Ukraine is in second place in terms of mortality in the world. Only South Africa is ahead of her in this sad ranking. At a time when the average mortality rate in the world is 8.6 per thousand people, in Ukraine it is actually twice as high - 15.72 (data for 2014). For comparison, in Iraq, where the political situation is unstable in places, tragic events with the use of weapons are constantly happening, the mortality rate is only 4.57. What underlies the problems of the population of the Ukrainian state?
