Within the last seven years Ukraine's population dropped be about two
million people, which is roughly the population of Slovenia or of Lviv
oblast.
Ukraine's Health Ministry predicts that the mortality rate will exceed
the birth rate in the next few years, and by 2002 Ukraine's population
will drop to only 48 million, Health Minister Andriy Serdiuk reported at
a seminar for regional mass media on December 14. The Minister attracted
special attention to the rise in male mortality. According to him, three
to five times as many men die between the age of 18 and 60 as women.
According to the Ministry's statistics, over six million people in Ukraine
suffer from cardiovascular diseases, over 1.2 million are mentally ill,
the same number of disabled of various categories, 800,000 alcoholic, over
700,000 sufferers from tuberculosis, 300,000 diabetics, and 120,000 with
birth defects. According to UNIAN, Serdiuk emphasized that all these indices
"considerably influence" the average life expectancy of Ukraine's citizens
and the further deterioration of its demographic situation.






