Populated place in Ukraine (Ukrainian: Населений пункт, romanized: Naselenyi punkt) is a structural element of human settling system, a stationary settlement, territorially integral compact area of population concentration basic and important feature of which is permanent human habitation.[1] Populated places in Ukraine are systematized into two major categories: urban and rural.[2] Urban populated places can be either cities or urban settlements, while rural populated places can be either villages or rural settlements. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there are 1,344 urban populated places and 28,621 rural populated places in Ukraine.
All populated places are governed by their municipality (hromada), may it be a village, a city or any settlement hromada. A municipality may consist of one or several populated places and is (except Kyiv and Sevastopol) a constituent part of a raion (district) which in turn is constituents of an oblast (province).
Beside regular populated places in Ukraine that are part of administrative division and population census, there are several additional categories for populated places that are used for other purposes. Among such categories are mountainous populated places, historic populated places, and others.
Cities that have population of less than 50,000 are considered to be small cities and fall under a special state program in development of small cities.[6] According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there are 454 cities in Ukraine, among which two with special status (Kyiv and Sevastopol).
Urban-type settlement is a Soviet invented term for a populated place with some degree of urbanization or in proximity to an urbanized area. In the Constitution of Ukraine urban settlement is mentioned simply as selysche (a settlement), which also adds another ambiguity to the administrative territorial system of Ukraine. The term selysche is also used to some smaller populated places, while can be found within other administrative territorial subdivisions. Those settlements implicitly known as rural settlements, while often presented simply as settlements.
The designation is set to be abolished in late January 2024 as part of the decommunization of Ukraine's settlement classification system.
Rural populated places
Rural populated places (Ukrainian: сільські населені пункти) or rural localities[7] can refer to two different types of inhabited places: villages and rural settlements. Rural populated places in Ukraine are very underdeveloped and often lack basic types of infrastructure: transportation, utilities and others.
Villages
Village as a term became systematic for a conventional rural populated place and most numerous out of all terms used for populated places in a country. It is administrated by silrada (a rural council) and is the lowest level and most common form of territorial administration at that level. A rural council may be composed of a single village or group of villages. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there are 27,190 villages in Ukraine that organized into 10,278 rural (village) councils.
The term selyshche (селище, "settlement") has a double meaning in the administrative-territorial system of Ukraine. It may be used either for urban-type settlements or for some smaller populated places which often part of silrada (a rural council), while can be found within other administrative territorial subdivisions. Those settlements are implicitly known as rural settlements while often presented simply as settlements which might give the impression of an urban settlement.
Most often rural settlements are constituent parts of adjacent village, urban settlement or city, while on some occasions may be administrated by their own rural council. Unlike villages, a rural settlement may be part of a city or another settlement council. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there are 1,266 rural settlements in Ukraine.
Other populated places
In 1995 there was created a special category for mountainous populated places in Ukraine. Mountainous status is received by populated places located in mountainous area, have inadequately developed sphere of employment and social services as well as a limited transportation access (low development density of infrastructure or infrastructure is weak).
Historic types of populated places
Among historic types of populated places in Ukraine are places like khutir, prysilok, zymivnyk, mistechko, sloboda, horod. Collective and/or soviet farms used to be based either on an individual settlement (village) or include several neighboring rural settlements (villages, khutirs, slobodas).
Ukrainian khutirs were destroyed in 1930s-1940s during the Soviet occupation as part of the fight with individual farming (dekulakization campaign).[8]
