Poll: 21% of Ukrainians would like to emigrate if borders are opened

21% of Ukrainians are ready to leave the country if the borders are fully opened. The main reasons for this decision are the lack of development opportunities, the consequences of the war, and insufficient social support.

These are the results of a joint survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Centre's social service.

At the same time, 70% of respondents do not plan to move abroad for permanent residence, and another 9% have not yet decided.

The survey showed that the desire to leave is most common among young people aged 18 to 29-33%. With age, this figure decreases, with only 9% of people over 60 wanting to leave Ukraine.

It should be noted that men were more likely than women to express their readiness to move: 25% vs. 17%.

The highest percentage of those willing to emigrate is among residents of the eastern regions (26.5%), while in the southern regions this figure is only 12%.

Among those who plan to leave Ukraine, the main motivations are

• Lack of development opportunities — 30.5%;
• threat to life due to the war — 29%;
• insufficient social support from the state — 29%;
• desire to reunite with relatives — 26%;
• the need to evacuate dependent relatives — 23%;
• inability to find a suitable job — 21%.

How the survey was conducted

The survey was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Razumkov Centre from 29 November to 14 December 2024. It involved 1518 respondents from different regions of Ukraine, except for the temporarily occupied territories. The sampling error does not exceed 2.6%. At the same time, additional systematic sampling deviations may be caused by the consequences of Russian aggression, in particular, the forced evacuation of millions of citizens.

Earlier it was reported that 7.7 million Ukrainian citizens are abroad, of whom 5.3 million live in the European Union.