Facts & Figures

DID YOU KNOW:

  • Ukraine is the largest country in Europe
  • There is no article before Ukraine: Ukraine, not “the Ukraine”
  • The Cultural Capital, Lviv, has the highest number of cafes per capita
  • The Ukrainian national costume is called Vyshyvanka. International Vyshyvanka Day is celebrated on the third Thursday of May
  • Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is one of the biggest Orthodox monasteries in the world
  • Ukrainians have built the world’s heaviest plane An-225 Mriya
  • The first constitution in the world was written and adopted in Ukraine in 1710 by a Cossack Hetman named Pylyp Orlyk.
  • After declaring independence, Ukraine gave up the third largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world, which it inherited from the USSR
  • Ukraine is the geographic center of Europe

 

Population: 43,950,000 (July 2018 CIA Factbook est.)

Location: Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland and Russia

Geographic coordinates: 49 00 N, 32 00 E

Area:
total: 603,700 sq km
land: 603,700 sq km
Area comparative: slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
total: 4,558 km
border countries: Belarus 891 km, Hungary 103 km, Moldova 939 km, Poland 428 km, Romania (south) 169 km, Romania (west) 362 km, Russia 1,576 km, Slovakia 90 km

Coastline: 2,782 km
Maritime claims: (water resources)
continental shelf: 200-m or to the depth of exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: temperate continental Mediterranean only on the southern Crimean coast precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest in west and north, lesser in east and southeast winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland summers are warm across the greater part of the country, hot in the south

Terrain: most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (steppes) and plateaus, mountains being found only in the west (the Carpathians), and in the Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
highest point: Mount Hoverla 2,061 m

Natural resources: iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber

Administrative divisions: 24 oblasti or regions (singular: oblast), 1 autonomous republic (avtonomna respublika), and 2 municipalities with oblast status
Independence: 1 December 1991 (from Soviet Union)
National holiday: Independence Day, 24 August (1991)
Constitution: adopted 28 June 1996
Legal system: based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts
Suffrage: 18 years of age universal