Challenge and approach

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Demography is usually reduced to social statistics or labour market data. Neither framing is sufficient: depopulation, mass emigration, and population ageing directly affect Ukraine’s defence capacity, economic viability, and the state’s ability to remain a political subject. As of 2024, Ukraine’s population had fallen to approximately 30 million, with a median age exceeding 45.

The Frontier Institute integrates the demographic, migratory, and identity dimensions into a long-term framework for Ukraine’s development and security, building an expert ecosystem in which the state, business, civil society, religious institutions, and the armed forces are all treated as actors in demographic policy.

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Areas of activity

• Research Ukrainian and international experience in migration, repatriation, and birth rate dynamics
• Build a cross-sectoral community of experts, policymakers, and businesses around the issue
• Identify institutional gaps and set the policy agenda

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Main results 

• Migration policy of Ukraine: regulatory framework and implementation practices
• Return and reintegration instruments: Poland, Latvia
• Diaspora engagement policies: Poland, Croatia, Ireland
• Ukrainian migrants in Poland and Germany
• Student migration and the role of higher education in migration processes
• Identity, national communities and integration
• Birth rate and family support: international experience
• Demographic modelling: projections to 2035+
• The Demography & Migration Platform brings together representatives of the state, civil society, research institutions and business. As of June 2026, 15 events have been held, with over 250 participants.

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Ambition

To make demographic resilience a core component of Ukraine’s long-term development and security strategy.

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