MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Some 500,000 people are expected to leave Ukraine in 2024, the country’s National Bank said in its October report.

The bank projected earlier that about 400,000 people would leave the country before the end of the year but now, it has worsened its forecast. The report points out that energy issues increased immigration in the summer.

The National Bank of Ukraine also projects that another 200,000 people will leave the country in 2025. Immigrants aren't expected to start returning until 2026.

Ukraine has been facing major demographic issues since independence. According to estimates from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences’ Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies, the population in the Kiev-controlled areas currently stands at 25-28 mln. The institute’s director Ella Libanova said earlier that Ukraine’s population would never return to the levels recorded in the Soviet times, when it stood at about 52 mln.

In 2012, the country’s birth rate fell to the historical low of 1.53. That said, demographers highlight the need to make sure that Urkainainns who have moved to other countries return home. Together with migrant workers, their number stands at some nine mln. There are currently three deaths per birth in Ukraine.