Populated places in Ukraine

Populated places in Ukraine (Ukrainian: Населенні пункти) are systematized into two major categories: urban and rural. 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 (usually a council or a territorial state administration), may it be a village, a city or any settlement. A municipality may consist of one or several populated places and is either a constituent part of a raion (city of district significance, settlement council, or rural council) or separated from its surrounding raion becoming the equivalent of a raion (city of regional significance). Certain city municipalities may be constituents of an oblast (province) or the whole Ukraine such as Kiev or Sevastopol. Note that Kiev and Sevastopol are the only populated places that also have local state administrations.

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.

Cities compose a unique subcategory of populated places in Ukraine. This subcategory is divided into several classes depending on level of administration in Ukraine.

Cities most often serve as administrative centers of regions or districts. Cities are administrated by city councils, while selected cities may have State Regional Administration. Unlike other populated places in Ukraine, a city always has its own council. City status a settlement receives on a decision of the Supreme Council of Ukraine - Verkhovna Rada.

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. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there are 454 cities in Ukraine, among which two with special status (Kiev and Sevastopol), 178 of regional significance and 274 of district significance.

Urban settlement is a Soviet invented term for a populated place with some degree of urbanization or it 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 which often part of silrada (a rural council), while can be found within other administrative territorial subdivisions. Those settlements implicitly known as rural settlements, while often presented simply as settlements giving impression of an urban settlement.

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