Geographical distribution of Ukrainian speakers

At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with the Ukrainian language regardless of territorial distinctions.

[1] There are many Ukrainophone communities in neighbouring countries with Ukraine, due to the historical spread of ethnic Ukrainian populations in areas that later became a part of those states, including Belarus, Moldova (especially Transnistria), Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, as well as in continental nations and areas where Ukrainians had moved to in recent centuries or were deported to during the Soviet regime, such as Kazakhstan, the Far East, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Portugal, the U.K., etc.

The lowest level of Ukrainian language proficiency was recorded among Crimean Tatars (20%), Bulgarians (42%), and Romanians (44%).

[6] According to the 2019 Belarusian census, the number of people who indicated Ukrainian as their mother tongue increased to 55,020 (0.58% of the country's population, 3rd place).

[8] According to the 2014 Moldovan census, the number of people who indicated Ukrainian as their mother tongue decreased to 107,252 (3.82% of the country's population, 5th place after Moldovan, Romanian, Russian, and Gagauz), and the number of people who frequently speak Ukrainian decreased to 73,802 (2.63% of the country's population).

The total number of people who reported being able to speak Ukrainian was 1,815,210 (5th place after Russian, English, Tatar, and German).

[16] According to the 2021 Russian census, which was also conducted in the Russian-annexed Crimea, the number of those who reported speaking Ukrainian decreased to 627,106 (9th place).

[18] Although most Brazilian Ukrainians have lived in Brazil for 4-5 generations and few have ever seen Ukraine,[19] they have preserved their language and culture to a large degree in rural Paraná state.

[22] Due to isolation from Ukraine, the Ukrainians of Brazil speak a 100-year-old form of the language's Galician or "Upper Dniestrian" dialect.

The overwhelming majority of Ukrainophones in the United States reside in select areas of New York City and Baltimore, MD.