News & Comment
Demographic Crisis as a Manifestation of Lack of Ideology

News

According to official statistics, Ukrainian city of Dnipro is no more a city with population more that 1 million, up until the 1st of August less than 1 million people were recorded. The current population is 996,787 people.

According to State statistics agency the whole population of Ukraine up to 1st August 2018 is 42,248,100 people. (Source: https://zn.ua/UKRAINE/dnepr-vybil-iz-chisla-gorodov-millionnikov-295237_.html)

Comment

First time Dnipro became a city with a population of more than a million people in 1976. After that, its population increased until the collapse of USSR and reached its maximum of 1.2 million people in 1993. After that, its population reduced and in the end of 2000th , it became less than a million. This continued until 2017 when it was stated that due to migration from eastern Ukraine that is involved in conflict, Dnipro’s population again reached 1 million people. At last in September 2018 its population once more became less than 1 million.

It is worse to mention that this city possesses all factors for constant increase of its population. Dnipro is a major industrial centre of Ukraine. It has several facilities devoted to heavy industry that produce a wide range of products, including cast-iron, rolled metal, pipes, machinery, different mining combines, agricultural equipment, tractors, trolleybuses, refrigerators, different chemicals and many others. Dnipro has also dominated in the aerospace industry since the 1950s; construction department Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and Yuzhmash are well known to the specialists all over the world. Metals and metallurgy is the city’s core industry in terms of output. Dnipro is non-official business capital of Ukraine.

Such decline in population occurs not only in Dnipro but in other Ukrainian cities as well. It was expressively confirmed by “UN 2012-2013 State of the World's Cities report” according to which Ukrainian cities Dnipro, Donetsk and Zaporizhia are among first five leaders in population decrease. (Source: https://censor.net.ua/n221398).

Indeed, demographic situation in Dnipro reflects Ukrainian population trends.

Up to the collapse of USSR, population of Ukraine reached its peak – 52 millions. After that, during the next 25 years, population impetuous decreased and reached 42 million in 2018. Thereby, Ukrainian population decreased 20%.

As predicted by the Institute of Demography and Social Researches (NASU), if fertility rate, duration of life and migration rate will not change, then in 2050 population in Ukraine will decrease to 32 million, and the amount of people older than 60 will increase 1.5 times. And these figures are of a glance of demographic factors only, and migration factors are neglected.

Law birth and high death rates, labour migration as a result of impossibility of finding employment with worthy salary inside Ukraine, corruption, political and economic instability, low social and medical standards, all of these are said to be reasons of population decrease.

However, after intent examination, we see that all these so called reasons are no more but a manifestation of a more general and global reason.

The real reason is the lack of an ideology in Ukraine that could consolidate all the population around political movements and parties that are built on this ideology.

After the collapse of USSR and rejection of communism, Ukrainian people and their political elite roam while searching for new idea that can unite around itself the population of Ukraine that possess a potential that is enough to become a regional power at least.

Lack of an ideology causes lack of stable sincere political leadership, which results in political and economic instability.

It is well known for every one that over a period of 25 years, Ukraine is an arena for merciless concurrence between such international powers as Russia, the US and EU. And all of this powers consider people and potential of Ukraine not more than a resource and trophy in this struggle.

Therefore, it is natural that in such conditions we have low birth and high death rates, labor migration abroad, corruption, low social and medical standards.

Therefore, such cities, as Dnipro, that in recent past was the basis of economical and industrial potential of Ukraine with the lapse of time become an inanimate desert. Despair of situation is in the fact that now Ukrainian people in their aspiration to get rid of remains of communism which is modern Russia are offered capitalistic ideology which no less failed idea in terms of reaching stable progress.

As for the third alternative, which is the choice of Islamic ideology, it is not discussed in Ukrainian agenda due to understandable reasons.Indeed, such a plight condition occurs in all states that seek refuge in manmade systems including so called developed European countries and America.

This plight situation will continue until the emergence of the Righteous Khilafah (Caliphate) on the method of Prophethood; a state that is built on the Islamic ideology that will become a beacon of justice and economic growth, and will also be an example of coexistence of people with different faith and nationalities in one state.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fazil Amzaev
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Ukraine