Odessa - Demographics

Demographics

Ukrainians make up a majority (62 percent) of Odessa's inhabitants, and there is also a large ethnic Russian minority (29 percent). Despite the increasing status of the Ukrainian language, the primary language spoken in the city continues to be Russian. Even among the ethnic Ukrainian population of the city Russian is the most widely spoken and understood language, with Ukrainian being primarily used for the fulfilment of official business and in interregional commerce. The city is also home to a number of other nationalities and minority ethnic groups, in addition to the city's majority Ukrainian population; including, Albanians, Armenians, Azeris, Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, Romanians, Turks, amongst others. Up until the early 1940s the city also had a large Jewish population. As the result of mass deportation to extermination camps during the Second World War, the city's Jewish population declined considerably. Since the 1970s, the majority of the remaining Jewish population emigrated to Israel and other countries, leaving the Jewish community a shadow of what it once was.