Almost 3 mln Ukrainians left homeland since independence

According to official statistics, 2.7 million citizens have left abroad since Ukraine's independence, Olena Malynovska, chief researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, announced this during a conference in the framework of the project "Effective management of labor migration and its qualification aspects," Ukrinform reports.

"Over the years of independence, according to the official statistics, 2.7 million people have left abroad, of which about 2 million moved to the CIS countries and more than 700,000 to the rest of the world. However, the population census that was conducted in 2001 showed that the actual migration losses were 1.7 times greater than official statistics had recorded," Malynovska noted.
According to her, the primary reason for migration of Ukrainians is economic instability.

"The reasons for emigration of Ukrainians are well known, I can only give the ratio of the average salary. In 2010, the average salary in Ukraine amounted to 4% of salary in Germany, 6% - in Italy, 7% - in Spain, 20% - in Poland and Russia. These data do not require any comments," Malynovska added.