OREANDA-NEWS.  September 30, 2008. A demographic situation in Ukraine is paradoxical: the country takes one of the last places for life expectancy and, at the same time, Ukraine's population is one of the oldest. Such distressing facts were presented at a workshop at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy dedicated to a governmental policy in the field of ageing and fulfillment of the Madrid International Action Plan on Ageing, reported the Official website www.kmu.gov.ua.

According to Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy Serhiy Bychkov, over 11 million of elderly people are living in Ukraine, which makes up some 24% of the population. The ageing problem in the countries of Central and Western Europe is due to a social policy and lower mortality rate, while in Ukraine the population grows old due to low birth rate first of all.

The World Bank forecast shows that a share of persons above 60 will total some 33% in Ukraine until 2050.