Childhood disrupted

First of all, it is essential to understand, how many children there are in Ukraine now, what impact the full-scale war had on demography. In the beginning of 2022, 41 million people, of which 7.3 million are children, lived in Ukraine.

According to UNFPA estimates, there are 27% fewer children living in the government-controlled areas of the country than in the beginning of 2022, due to massive displacement.

The population of Ukraine has been steadily decreasing since the 1990s. The war that started in 2014 and escalated in 2022 forced millions to flee their home. As of July 2023, about 5 million children were remaining in the country. As many official statistics are not being collected or published due to martial law, these estimates are based on alternative sources, such as different administrative data or mobile phone usage.

About 14 million people, or more than a third of Ukraine's population, had to leave their homes for at least some period of time. As of mid-2024, there are about 6.5 million Ukrainian refugees abroad, and 3.7 million internally displaced persons, of whom about a third are children.

Maternal and newborn health care services are essential for ensuring children's survival and well-being. In 2023 there were 31% fewer children born than in 2021. While the number of children being born in Ukraine every year has decreased, the needs and challenges grew.

Child mortality is one of the key indicators of newborn and child health, and of to what extent the health care system is doing a good job. Despite the difficult humanitarian situation, the neonatal mortality rate was estimated at 5 per 1,000 live births (2021), indicating a non-critical but somewhat higher prevalence compared to the rest of Europe.

Maternal mortality, despite the war, shows a certain trend towards reduction (14 per 100,000 live births in 2022) after a spike in 2020-21, which was likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The share of early pregnancies (births to mothers aged 17 and younger) has remained relatively stable over the years, accounting for less than 2% of all births, according to medical statistics. In 2022, there were 2,256 births to teenage mothers (aged 15-17) and 94 to mothers aged 14 and younger.

Ukraine has one of the lowest vaccination coverage rates in Europe. In 2016, vaccination coverage dropped to one of the lowest levels in the world, with coverage for DTP3 at 21.5% and MCV2 at 31%. Although the number of children who received the second dose of the measles vaccine increased from 69% to 87% in 2022-2023, it remained below the ideal coverage level of 95% in 2023. Click on the icon below to view the details:

The escalation of the war had significant impact on children’s psychological well-being. In the 2018 HBSC (Health behaviour of school children) survey, carried out according to the WHO methodology, 83% of schoolchildren aged 11-17 said they feel happy or very happy.I In 2023, this number dropped almost twice, down to 47 per cent.

Kindergartens and schools play a crucial role in fulfilling the educational rights of a child. They provide the foundational education that is essential for a child’s development and future opportunities. Without sufficient schools and quality education, children may miss out on critical early learning experiences, leading to gaps in knowledge and skills. The number of schools and kindergartens in Ukraine was decreasing for decades and dropped even more after 2022. Over 3,500 educational institutions were damaged and hundreds were destroyed due to war, according to Government data.

As the population shrank, and control over territories was lost, so did the number of children enrolled in kindergartens and schools. Since 2021, the number of children in preschool education institutions has decreased by 25%. The number of children in schools decreased by 8% in 2023 compared to 2021. Out of 3.9 million schoolchildren, 10% (390,000) live abroad and study remotely.

Despite the decrease in the number of teachers, the overall pupil-to-teacher ratio has remained relatively low, reflecting the demographic structure of school-aged children.

As of the end of 2023, a total of 5.1 million children (0–17 years) were attending educational institutions. This includes 836,000 in preschools, 3.9 million in secondary schools, 133,000 in vocational schools, 181,000 in pre-higher, and 107,000 in higher education institutions.

Ukrainian preschool and school education significantly lags behind European standards in terms of inclusivity. About 7% of children in preschool education have special educational needs (55,000 children), of which only 24% are in inclusive groups. Children with disabilities make up less than 1% of the total number of children attending preschool institutions. Schools are also striving to create an inclusive environment for children, but this process is slower than desired: less than half of the children who need special learning conditions are in inclusive classes.

Over 56% of children attended kindergartens online in October 2022, but this figure dropped to 16% by November 2023. Regions near the front line primarily operate online or in a hybrid format. Safety concerns affect the modes of learning, making traditional in-person education often unavailable due to shelling and other restrictions. For the 2023-2024 school year, about half of all schoolchildren studied online or in a hybrid format. The Ministry of Education is developing a comprehensive policy to achieve 100% offline education. Online learning negatively impacts children, depriving them of social interaction with peers and proper quality education. Click on the icon below to view the details:

In the early days of the war in 2022, over 38,000 of the 48,000 children under institutional care were returned to their families without assessing the families’ ability to provide care and upbringing. According to the National Social Service of Ukraine (NSSSU), the number of children in formal residential care (living in institutions 24/7) was 27,500 as of the end of 2023. About 11% of these children have disabilities. Click on the icon below to view the details:

The number of children with criminal charges decreased from 2,649 to 1,369 in 2021-2022, but increased by 28% to 1,752 in 2023.

About 28% of children charged with crimes in 2023 eventually received sentences.

In absolute numbers, the total number of children who received either custodial or alternative sentences increased by 160 between 2022-2023.

At the same time, 86 children were in detention at the end of 2023, according to the data of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and Department for the Execution of Criminal Sentences of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

Between 2021 and 2023, the number of children who became victims of registered crimes almost doubled to 11,495. This was an all-time high since 2015, amid a steady decline in reported crimes against children from 7,050 in 2015 to 5,236 in 2020.

According to the statistics published by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, almost 7,000 children were reported as victims of crimes classified by the Government of Ukraine as “violations of the rules and customs of war” during 2022-2023.

The number of cases of children who experienced sexual abuse increased by 67% from 526 to 880 between 2022 and 2023. Girls and women who experienced rape were the majority (76%) of rape cases in 2023. Children who experienced rape make up 86% of all cases of rape in 2023. Women who experienced domestic violence also make up the largest proportion of such cases (80% in 2023). Among those who experienced domestic violence, children make up 8% of these cases. Out of all children who experienced crimes, almost 40% were under 14 years old.

One of the key factors limiting children’s future opportunities and potential is poverty, which leads to significant health, educational, and developmental challenges. After the escalation of war in 2022 child poverty (% of households with children with average monthly income lower than the actual subsistence minimum) increased almost twice, to 38% in 2023. The average actual monthly subsistence minimum for 2023 was UAH 6166, or USD 169.

The more children there are in a household, the higher the risk of monetary poverty. Over 70% of households with three or more children were below the poverty line in 2023.

Over a third of families with 3 or more children cannot afford to eat meat or fish at least twice a week. Over 70% of families with 3 or more children lack access to sewage systems, and about 45% lack access to running water. Overall, more than half of families with three children receive at least one type of social assistance.

Despite the escalation of the war and significant strain on the state budget, social protection expenditures increased between 2021-2023, even when measured in USD (while spending on education and healthcare dropped significantly). This demonstrates a strong commitment by the Ukrainian Government to supporting vulnerable populations during challenging times.

Access to safe and adequate water, sanitation and hygiene is essential for children to prevent disease, stay healthy, and ensure their safety and dignity. By the end of 2023, approximately 1.7 million children lacked access to safe water, and 3.4 million lacked adequate sanitation. More than 75% of rural areas in Ukraine did not have access to centralised water supply and sanitation systems in 2020-2021. Only 23% of rural settlements in Ukraine had access to centralised water supply. Click on the icon below to view the details:

Water quality issues vary across different water supply types. The key issue for water quality in centralised supply is turbidity. For water samples taken from wells, contamination with nitrates (originating mostly from intensive agriculture) is a serious problem. For water supplied from boreholes, a widespread issue in some regions is increased salinity. Click on the icon below to view the details:

In 2022, household water wells play a crucial role in rural areas, comprising 51.5% of total water supply sources, while in urban areas they constitute only 8.2%. Other sources include public hand-operated water pumps, public wells, springs, rivers, lakes, ponds, water trucking, bottled water, and miscellaneous sources.

In different regions, some sources of water supply are more widely used than others.

The primary source of drinking water in households with children are private wells and boreholes (33%), with centralized water supply used by 27% of families with children. Due to the war, over 1,000 km of water supply networks, 82 pumping stations, 12 water treatment facilities, and over 300 kilometers of sewage networks were destroyed or damaged. The most significant damage occurred during the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023, leaving over 1 million people without access to drinking water and affecting 80 settlements in 4 regions.