This chapter provides an overview of the demographic situation in Ukraine, including
explanations for the decline to very low fertility and changes in family policy. Drawing
on official statistics, survey data, and focus group interviews, the analysis shows that
the country’s decline to lowest-low fertility is primarily due to the postponement of or
the reduction in second births, as opposed to the postponement of first births. The
chapter includes a discussion on the link between low fertility and changing marriage
patterns, contraceptive prevalence, and abortion. The author then reviews the evidence
for the leading explanations of fertility decline in Ukraine, including economic
uncertainty, social anomie, the Second Demographic Transition, and unequal gender
relations. In addition, the author proposes unexplored factors that may lead to fertility
limitation, such as the increasing difficulty of combining work and childrearing,
insufficient housing, changes in intergenerational support, and the deterioration of
health lifestyles and marital relations.