Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has forecast that Ukraine's population will start growing in 2015.

The birth rate in Ukraine has grown from 8.2% to 11% over five years, the president said at the all-Ukrainian conference entitled "With love and care for the children" in Kharkiv on Thursday.

Yushchenko noted that population is currently growing in four regions of Ukraine, whereas he expects this figure to double by the end of 2009.

"If this rate is be retained, Ukraine will see its first population increase in 2015," the president said.

The head of state also said that the number of cases of mothers giving up children has fallen almost by half (by 46%). However, the average number of children abandoned annually is 909, which is also very high, and the authorities should do their best so that fewer children are not abandoned, Yushchenko said.

Another positive tendency is the prevailing of domestic adoption over the adoption of Ukrainian children by foreign citizens. The number of adopted children is increasing every year. A total of 1,520 children have been given new parents this year.

"We hope that the number of adopted children in 2009 will grow to 2,200 compared to 1,419 in 2005," the head of state said.

There is a queue of 1,526 potential parents, but the registered number of orphans or abandoned children who could be adopted is 31,890, the president said.

According to the state statistics committee, Ukraine's population is shrinking by 200,000 - 250,000 people a year. As of September 1, 2009, Ukraine's population totaled 46.016 million.