The total number of the actual population of the region, according to the All-Ukrainian Population Census ‘2001 data, accounted for 1,175.1 thousand people.

The number of the urban population, according to the All-Ukrainian Population Census results, accounted for 706.2 thousand persons, or 60.1%, and that of the rural population 468.9 thousand people, or 39.9%.

According to the All-Ukrainian Population Census ‘2001 data, the number of men, accounted for 548.5 thousand people, or 46.7%, that of women, – 626.6 thousand people, or 53.3%.

The total number of the permanent population of the region as of 5 December 2001 accounted for 1,172.7 thousand people, including men – 546.6 thousand people, or 46.6%, that of women – 626.1 thousand people, or 53.4%, the urban population – 702.3 thousand people, or 59.9%, the rural population – 470.4 thousand people, or 40.1%.

Some changes have taken place in the age structure of the population. The diminution of the part of children in the population simultaneously with the significant increase in the part of persons at the age older than able-to-work considerably complicates present demographic situation in the region and leads to the growth in the ageing of the population.

The peculiarity of the national structure of the population is its multinational composition. According to the All-Ukrainian Population Census data, the representatives of more than 115 nationalities and ethnic groups lived in the region. The part of Ukrainians in the national structure of population amounted to 82%.

The language structure of the region, according to the All-Ukrainian Population Census ‘2001 data, is characterized by the following data: the part of those whose mother tongue is Ukrainian totals 73.2% of the population of the region, that is by 5.5 percentage points more than in 1989. The part of those whose mother tongue is Russian totals 24.9% of the population, comparatively with the data of the previous census this index has decreased by 5.5 percentage points.

The All-Ukrainian Population Census ‘2001 results testified to the tendency to the rise of the educational standard of the population. Thus, the number of people with higher and complete secondary education accounted for 669.4 thousand people, what exceeded by 17% the corresponding characteristic of the population census ‘1989.

According to the All-Ukrainian Population Census ‘2001 results, the number of married men and women accounts for 586.0 thousand people (that is 60.7% of the permanent population aged 15 and older), divorced or separated persons – 85.4 thousand people (that is 8.8%), those who never been married – 179.1 thousand people (18.5%).