Ukrainians in Europe
Other things being equal, displaced Ukrainians may be expected to settle close to where other Ukrainian migrants already live. Understanding where this is and how existing migrants are integrated into their host countries is crucial for predicting outcomes of new arrivals.
Headline statistics
- In 2020, there were a total of 1,714,656 Ukrainians in Europe (excluding Ukraine and Russia). The European countries for which we have data include the EEA, Belarus, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, and the UK (we define Europe following the UN geoscheme).
- This corresponds to over 3 Ukrainians per 1,000 people
- There were also a total of 3,268,263 Ukrainians in Russia, and 1,156,225 Ukrainians outside Russia and Europe
- 58% of Ukrainians in Europe (excluding Ukraine and Russia) are women (compared to 52% for other European migrants in Europe)
Where do existing Ukrainian migrants live around Europe?
Sources and technical notes
We use data provided by the United Nations on the stock of immigrants and total population to calculate the number of Ukrainians per 1000 population in different European countries. This data reflects the situation in 2020. Migrants are defined by country of birth for all countries but Czechia and San Marino. Data source: United Nations DESA Population Division - International Migrant Stock 2020; United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018); World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.The evidence suggests that new migrants are more likely to move to locations with large numbers of existing migrants from a similar background. Given that (at least as of March 2022) displaced Ukrainians have been allowed to travel throughout much of Europe freely, we may expect them to choose to disproportionately settle where there are already large Ukrainian diaspora communities, as reflected in this map.
Changes in Ukrainian migrant patterns over time
Sources and technical notes
We calculate how attractive different destination countries have been for Ukrainian migrants over the past decade. This is represented by the net change in the number of Ukrainian migrants per 1,000 population between 2010 and 2020. Migrants are defined by country of birth for all countries but Czechia and San Marino. Data source: United Nations DESA Population Division - International Migrant Stock 2020; United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018); World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.There are many reasons that a current Ukrainian migrant might be drawn to a particular country apart from the number of Ukrainians already living there. These factors may be reflected in the patterns of where Ukrainians have been moving over the last decade — newly displaced people might be attracted to particular locations for the same reasons as prior cohorts of migrants.
The gender distribution of Ukrainian Immigrants
Sources and technical notes
This map shows the fraction of the Ukrainian immigrants residing in a given country in the year 2020 that were female. Migrants are defined by country of birth for all countries but Czechia and San Marino. Data source: United Nations DESA Population Division - International Migrant Stock 2020.Given the nature of the current conflict driving the large movements of people we may expect women and children to be the main demographic groups represented (at least initially). We find that across most of Europe existing Ukrainian immigrants are predominantly female. In a few countries (e.g. Italy, France, and Norway) over 70% of Ukrainian immigrants are female.
Data sources: United Nations
Country-specific information
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More information will become available as we continue to add analysis of additional countries.