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Ukraine has highest mortality rate in world — report

Earlier, the Opendatabot resource, which monitors Ukrainian state registers, reported that now for every person born in Ukraine, three people die

NEW YORK, September 13. /TASS/. Ukraine is now number one in the world in mortality rate, according to a report from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

According to its information, the mortality rate in Ukraine is 18.6 per thousand people. Lithuania is second with a mortality rate of 15.2 per thousand people. Qatar came in last among the 229 countries on the list, with a rate of 1.4 per thousand people.

Earlier, the Opendatabot resource, which monitors Ukrainian state registers, reported that now for every person born in Ukraine, three people die. According to Ukrainian media, the birth rate in the country has reached a historical low. Demographers estimate that the birth rate currently does not exceed 0.8-0.9, far below the natural replacement rate of 2.1-2.2.

Ukraine's population has been steadily declining since the 1990s. According to various estimates, the country currently has between 25 and 28 million people. Top Ukrainian demographers earlier said that the population of Ukraine would never return to Soviet levels, when about 52 million people lived in the country. In 2012, when the birth rate reached a local maximum in the country, it amounted to only 1.53. In this situation, demographers believe that there is an urgent need for "strong immigration," including the return of Ukrainians who left abroad, whose number, together with labor migrants, reaches nine million people.

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