The Standard of Living of the Ukrainian Population: Approaches to Analysis and the Current Situation

Abstract

The Ukrainian society suffers from the low standard of living in all its manifestations. Given the multifaceted nature of this problem and the emergence of new trends in the socio-economic development of national economies in conditions of instability, a comprehensive and ongoing analysis of the standard of living of the Ukrainian population is relevant.
 The aim of the article is to study the methodological approaches to the assessment and analysis of the standard of living of the Ukrainian population, aimed at finding mechanisms for their further growth.
 Problems related with the standard of living have long been studied by researchers, with different approaches to its assessment. This analysis is more often conducted using three groups of indicators: economic, social and demographic. An attempt to create an integrated indicator of the standard of living is the Human Development Index (HDI) developed by experts from the United Nations Development Program.
 The Ukraine’s position in the world according to the Human Development Index is analyzed. In 2019, Ukraine ranked 74th among 189 countries and territories in terms of HDI (0.779), which was 0.725 in 1990. It was found that Ukraine had a much lower gross national income per capita than economically developed countries.
 A statistical analysis of the standard of living of the Ukrainian population in 2015–2020 by economic, social and demographic indicators is made. High levels of relative poverty, declining birth rates, unsatisfactory demographic indicators of the standard of living such as natural growth rate and life expectancy at birth were identified.