ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Demographics of Ukraine

Okay, kiddo! Demographics is all about the people who live somewhere. So when we talk about the demographics of Ukraine, we're talking about the people who live in Ukraine!

Now, Ukraine is a country in Europe, and it's pretty big - almost as big as Texas! And just like in any big place, there are lots of different types of people who live there.

One important thing to know about Ukraine is that it used to be part of the Soviet Union, which was a big group of countries that were all ruled by the same government. When the Soviet Union fell apart in the 1990s, Ukraine became its own country. But that history is still really important because it's affected who lives in Ukraine today.

So, what kinds of people live in Ukraine? Well, the biggest group is called ethnic Ukrainians. These are people whose families have always lived in Ukraine, and who speak Ukrainian as their first language. There are also smaller groups of people who speak other languages, like Russian, Polish, or Romanian.

Another important thing to know is that Ukraine is split into two parts - an eastern part and a western part. Those parts have different kinds of people living in them. The eastern part has more people who speak Russian and who feel like they have more in common with Russia than with Ukraine. The western part, on the other hand, has more people who speak Ukrainian and who feel like they have more in common with Europe.

One last important thing to know about the demographics of Ukraine is that it's a pretty young country. In fact, a lot of the people who live there today weren't even born when it became independent in 1991! So there's still a lot of figuring out to do about what kind of country Ukraine is going to be, and what kind of people are going to live there in the future.
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