POPULATION 48,396,470
EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN 61 percent
GREEK CATHOLIC 8 percent
PROTESTANT 3 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 1 percent
MUSLIM 1 percent
JEWISH 0.6 percent
SLAVIC (UKRAINIAN) PAGAN 0.2 percent
HINDU, BUDDHIST, AND PRACTITIONERS OF OTHER EASTERN RELIGIONS 0.1 percent
OTHER 0.1 percent
NONAFFILIATED 25 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Located in eastern Europe, Ukraine is one of the largest countries on the continent, both in size and population. It is bordered to the north by Belarus, to the northeast and east by Russia, to the south by the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, to the southwest by Moldova and Romania, and to the west by Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.

Lasting from the eighth until the thirteenth century, Kievan Rus, with its capital at Kiev, was the first and most influential Ukrainian state. It lost its independence in the fourteenth century as a result of the MongolTatar invasion from the east and Polish conquests in the west. Since that...