Study: Ukrainian language dominance is growing on social media

The Ukrainian language has taken a decisive lead over Russian on Ukrainian social media networks, a new study by the Content Analysis Center reveals.

The study compared posts from October 2023 to posts in 2022 and 2020.

“Western social networks such as Facebook, X, and Instagram highlight the growth of the Ukrainian language. Yes, more than 90% of posts on Instagram are now written in the official language," the study said.

According to the study's findings, 75-80% of posts on Facebook are written in Ukrainian, up from 65-70% last year. Earlier analysis from October 2020 found that only 15-25% of posts were in Ukrainian.

While Ukrainian was made the country's only official language following independence in 1991, Russian remained widely spoken throughout the eastern and southern regions.

"Obviously, the tendency to increase the share of the Ukrainian language will continue, although perhaps at a more modest pace," the study said.

"The key news is that YouTube has shown radical progress over the last year... The share of the Ukrainian language in TikTok also doubled: if earlier the ratio was 1 to 2 in favor of the Russian language, now it is 2 to 1 in favor of the national language."

The study was conducted from September 20 to October 20 and included parts of occupied Ukraine.

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