Lviv region is an administrative-territorial unit in the west of
Ukraine. It is one of the three regions of the historical and cultural
region of Galicia, part of the Carpathian Euroregion. One of the
developed regions of the state in the economic, tourist, cultural and
scientific areas. It was formed on November 27, 1939 after the
annexation of the eastern part of Poland by the Soviet Union under the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
The Lviv region includes 7 districts:
Lviv, Drohobych, Chervonograd, Stryi, Sambir, Zolochiv and Yavoriv
districts. Lviv region borders on Volyn, Rivne, Ternopil,
Ivano-Frankivsk and Transcarpathian regions, has access to the state
border with the Republic of Poland.
The north of the region
belongs to the zone of mixed forests, in particular, Maly Polissya; the
middle part - into the forest-steppe, where the strands of Roztochie,
Gologir, Voronyak, Opole and the western part of the Podolsk Upland
stand out. Further south are the Carpathian foothills and, in fact, the
Carpathians. They are represented by the Beskids. The southern border of
the region coincides with the Verkhovinsky Dividing Range. The main
European watershed of the Black and Baltic Seas also passes through the
territory of the region.
The Lviv region includes the southern
part of the Lvov-Volyn coal basin and the western parts of the
Cis-Carpathian oil and gas region and the Cis-Carpathian sulfur-bearing
basin. The largest industrial centers are Chervonograd, Lvov and
Boryslav-Drohobychsko-Stebnitsky.
Truskavets, Morshin and
Skhidnytsia are balneological resorts of international importance. The
architectural ensembles of Lviv and Zhovkva, castles and other sights,
which are rich in the region, the Carpathian Mountains provide great
prospects for the tourist development of the region.
In 2008, according to the Department of Statistics, the following
cultural institutions operated in the region:
17 museums (see Museums
of Lviv region)
11 theaters
1374 libraries
1397 club-type
establishments
13 concert organizations.
Of the educational
institutions in 2008, the following functioned in the region:
53
higher educational institutions of I-IV levels of accreditation
1469
general educational institutions
62 vocational schools
487
preschool institutions.
Like a real diamond of Eastern Europe,
Lviv resembles an open-air museum, it houses 2000 historical,
architectural and cultural monuments. For centuries, people have brought
their cultures and traditions, religion here. Hence, in the architecture
of Lviv, a mixture of Gothic and Baroque, Renaissance and Romanesque,
Rococo and Empire, modern eclecticism and constructivism. Lviv is a
treasury of national ideas and culture, it is the economic, educational
and cultural center of the West of Ukraine. It has many museums, art
galleries, theater and music companies. The majestic Lviv Opera and
Ballet Theater has a very busy season. Lviv is home to 12 institutions
of higher education and has a well-deserved reputation as a city with a
high level of education. One of the oldest universities in Central
Europe and the first university founded in Ukraine is located here.
In the Lviv region, a significant number of old wooden churches have
been preserved.
The total number of monuments of history,
archeology, urban planning and architecture, monumental art in the
region is 3934.
On the territory of the Lviv region there are:
886 monuments of archeology (of which 14 are of national importance),
3822 monuments of history (of which 7 are of national importance), 3431
monuments of architecture and urban planning (of which 794 are of
national importance), 302 monuments of monumental art (of which of them
- 1 of national importance). The List of historical settlements of
Ukraine, approved by the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
dated July 26, 2001 No. 878, includes 55 settlements of the Lviv region:
Belz, Bibrka, Boryslav, Brody, Busk, Bolshoy Lyuben, Velikie Mosty,
Vinniki, Glynyany, Nests, Dobromil, Drohobych, Dublyany, Zhydachev,
Zhovkva, Zolochiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kamenka-Bugskaya, Komarnoe,
Krakovets, Kulikov, Lviv, Magerov, Medenichi, Nikolaev, Morshyn,
Mostiska, Nemirov, Nizhankovichi, Novy Yarychev, Oles Peremyshlany,
Podkamen, Pomeranians, Pustomyty, Rava-Russian, Rozdol, Rudki, Sambor,
Skole, Sokal, Old Sambor, Staraya Salt, Stryi, Judicial Cherry, Turk,
Ugnev, Khyrev, Khodorov, Chervonograd, Glass, Shirets, Yavorov.
The most important tourism destinations are:
The ensemble of the
historical center of Lviv or the Old Town is a territory in the central
part of the city of Lviv, included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lviv State Historical and Architectural Reserve.
State Historical and
Cultural Reserve "Tustan" (remains of a rock fortress of the 9th - 14th
centuries)
State historical and cultural reserve in Belga.
State
Historical and Cultural Reserve "Naguevichi".
Branch of the Lviv
Historical Reserve in Zhovkva (see Architectural sights of Zhovkva).
Monastery complex in Krekhov (see Krekhov).
Ancient Russian
settlements of the X-XIII centuries. in Zvenigorod and Stilsky.
Golden Horseshoe of Ukraine: Olesko Castle XIII-XVII centuries.
Zolochevsky castle. Podgoretsky castle. Svirzh castle.
The oldest
architectural sights of Lviv are the High Castle, the Church of St.
Nicholas, the Armenian Cathedral, Gothic and Baroque sights - the
Barefoot Carmelite churches of 1644.
Sanatorium treatment and
recreation occupies a leading place in the structure of the tourist
complex of the Lviv region. There are 106 relevant institutions in the
region: sanatoriums, boarding houses, rest houses, bases and
institutions for 1-2 day stay. Among the regions of Ukraine in terms of
the number of sanatorium and health resorts, the Lviv region ranks
eighth, and in terms of the number of sanatoriums and boarding houses
with treatment - the second, after the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Waterfalls:
Borislavsky
Rumbled
Guchalo little
golden-crumpled
Kamensky
Verkhnekamensky, near the village.
Kamenka
bathhouse
Near Kudryavets, on the outskirts of the
village. Kamenka
machinations
intrigues upper
sopit
Phantom
Krushelnitsky
Dzyurchik, in with. Kamenka
The region has one of the most developed transport networks in the
state. Important railways, roads, pipelines and electric (electric
power) highways pass through its territory, which connect Ukraine with
the countries of Central Europe.
There is an airport in Lviv.
The total length of railways is 1309 km, motorways - 8.0 thousand km,
including 7.4 thousand km with hard surface. The largest railway
junctions are Lvov, Stryi, Sambir, Krasnoe. The most important railway
lines: Kyiv - Lvov - Prague (Budapest), Warsaw - Przemysl - Lvov -
Bucharest. Main highways: Lvov - Rovno - Kyiv, Lvov - Ternopil -
Vinnitsa - Kyiv, Lvov - Ivano-Frankivsk - Chernivtsi, Lvov - Uzhgorod.
The level of motorization in the Lviv region in 2012 was the lowest
among all regions of Ukraine - 103 cars per 1,000 inhabitants (against
the average Ukrainian level of 187 cars per 1,000 inhabitants).
The region is located in three zones: forest, forest-steppe, foothill and mountainous regions of the Carpathians. Forests occupy more than a quarter of the region's area. Located in the extreme west of the country.
The area of the region is 21.832 thousand
km, which is 3.6% of the territory of Ukraine and ranks 17th among other
regions of the state.
International communications pass through
the territory of the region, which connect Ukraine with Poland,
Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. The northern part of the region is
located within the Volyn Upland, the Lesser Polissya and the Podolsk
Upland, separated by the Dniester Valley from the Carpathians. The
ridges of the Ukrainian Carpathians are located in the south-west of the
region. The northern part of the region is located
in the
forest-steppe zone. It has favorable conditions for the development of
agriculture and recreation.
The Upper Dniester Basin is
located on the territory of the region.
The highest points of the
territory are the city of Pikuy (1405 m) on the border with the
Transcarpathian region and the city of Kamula (471 m) in the flat part.
The main European watershed between the basins of the
Baltic and Black Seas passes through the region. The Western Bug
(Vistula basin), on which Lviv is located, carries its waters into the
Baltic Sea. The Dniester, Styr, Ikva flow into the Black Sea.
The
main rivers are the Dniester with tributaries, the Western Bug with
tributaries, the Cherry and the Glass.
Moderately continental, humid: mild winters with thaws, humid spring, warm summers, warm dry autumns. The average temperature in January is -5 °C, in July from +18 °C in the central part of the region and up to +12 °C in the mountains. The annual rainfall ranges from 600 mm in the plains to 1000 mm in the mountains.
There are 400 territories and objects of the natural reserve fund in the region, including the State Nature Reserve "Rostochye", 33 nature reserves, the botanical garden of Lviv University, 240 natural monuments, 55 parks - monuments of landscape art, 61 reserved tracts.
On the territory of the Lviv region there are 24 types of minerals. The region is rich in minerals: natural gas, oil (Borislavskoye, Skhodnitskoye, Strelbitskoye oil fields), coal deposits, sulfur, peat, ozokerite (Borislavskoye ozokerite deposit), kitchen and potash salt, raw materials for raw materials and limestone for lime firing), shale (minilite slate), marl, large reserves of building and refractory clays (brick and tile raw materials), sand (for locomotive sandboxes and sand for the glass industry), gypsum and anhydrite, building chalk, sand and gravel mixtures, expanded clay raw materials; 4 deposits of therapeutic mineral waters of the Naftusya type were discovered. A special wealth of the Galician land is the large reserves of medicinal mineral waters, on the basis of which resorts operate.
Three regions are distinguished in the Lviv economic
zone: Predkarpatsky (Drohobych - engineering, woodworking, light
industry; Sambor - food industry, engineering, light industry,
woodworking industry. Stry - engineering, food and woodworking
industries, gas transportation industry; - Oil, light and chemical
industry; New Section and Yavorov sulfur production), Northern
(Chervonograd - coal mining, light industry; Sokal - chemical industry,
Dobrotvor - electric power industry); Lviv (engineering, food, light
industry).
In the structure of industrial production in the
region, the food industry, fuel industry, machine building and
metalworking, and electric power industry have the most specific weight.
In the structure of production of consumer goods, the share of food
products is 65%. In total, 728 industrial enterprises are on an
independent balance in the region, 1679 small industrial enterprises
operate. The main economic centers of the region: Lvov, Drohobych,
Stryi, Sambir, Borislav, Novy Razdel, Chervonograd, Sokal. The region's
economy is characterized by a complex sectoral and territorial
structure.
The environmentally hazardous objects of the Lviv
region include:
Yavoriv State Mining and Chemical Enterprise "Sirka"
- currently inactive;
JSC "Oil Refining Complex "Galicia" - currently
not operating;
Razdelsky state mining and chemical enterprise "Sirka"
- currently inactive;
Dobrotvorskaya TPP;
OJSC "Sokalsk Plant of
Chemical Fiber" - currently not active;
NGDU "Borislavneftegaz";
State coal holding company "Ukrzapadugol";
Lvov State Interregional
Specialized Combine UGO "Radon";
Stebnytsky DGHP "Polymineral" -
currently not operating;
Main oil product pipelines
"Prikarpattransnefteprodukt", "Druzhba", "Polyolefins", OAO "Oriana".
Dinmark TM (LLC "Leomark") Import of fasteners.
The branches of specialization of agriculture are the cultivation of grain crops, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, and flax. Meat and dairy cattle breeding, pig breeding and poultry farming are developed. And also some berries, fruits, in particular apples, pears and plums.
Number and placement
The actual population of the region as of
January 1, 2020 is 2,512,084 people, including the urban population of
1,534,040 people, or 61.1%, the rural population - 978,044 people, or
38.9%.
As of December 1, 2017, the actual population of the
region is 2,530,326 people, including 1,542,480 people (60.96%) of the
urban and 987,846 people (39.04%) of the rural population. The permanent
population is 2,511,956 people, including the urban population -
1,519,523 people (60.49%), the rural population - 992,433 people
(39.51%). In 2007, the Lviv region in terms of total population was in
4th place, while the proportion of residents who had the right to vote
was 79.8% (21st indicator among the regions of Ukraine); in 2009, 1
million 965 thousand voters were registered in the region. Lviv region
is the second in the country in terms of the number of cities. In 2007,
the migration reduction of the population of the Lviv region was 1197
people. Lviv region is the most urbanized area in the west of Ukraine,
but at the same time it is the leader among all regions of Ukraine in
terms of the absolute number of rural population.
The region is
one of the most densely populated in Ukraine. The average population
density is over 120 people/km², the average density of the rural
population is over 50 people/km². The most densely populated territories
are Lviv itself and the area adjacent to it, as well as areas between
the Dniester and Stryi rivers. The lowest population density is observed
in mountainous areas, as well as in the north-eastern regions of the
region.
The largest city in the region, Lviv, forms around itself
the central urban agglomeration of the region, in which 35% of the
population of the entire region lives. In the south of the region, the
Drogobych agglomeration stands out, the core of which is formed by the
cities of Drogobych, Borislav, Truskavets and Stebnik. These are cities
of the recreational zone; in addition to industrial production, they
have a large share of people employed in the service sector. In the
north of the region, on the territory of the Sokalsky district, a
complex of settlements was formed focused on the extraction and
enrichment of coal, consisting of Chervonograd, the regional center -
the city of Sokal, the cities of Sosnovka, Velikie Mosty, Belz and two
adjacent villages.
National composition
Over 90% of the
population of the region are Ukrainians, but about 250 thousand people
of other nationalities live in the region. The largest minority are
Russians (about 90,000 people), the vast majority of whom live in the
large cities of the region, and half live in Lvov. In addition, Poles
live in the region (mainly Lvov, Sambir, Mostyssky district), Jews
(Lvov).
National composition according to the 2001 census:
Ukrainians - 2,471,033 (94.8%)
Russians - 92,565 (3.6%)
Poles -
18,948 (0.7%)
Belarusians - 5437 (0.2%)
Jews - 2212 (0.1%)
Armenians - 1139 (0.04%)
Moldovans - 781 (0.03%)
gypsies - 769
(0.03%)
Tatars - 680 (0.03%)
The population of the Lviv region is characterized by a very high
level of religious activity, which was established by sociological
studies back in the Soviet period.
In 2019, the Lviv region had
the largest number of religious communities among all regions of Ukraine
- 2734, among them approximately the UGCC - 1468 (1st place among other
regions), the OCU - 795 (first place), the Roman Catholic Church - 129
(first place place), Pentecostals - 79, Baptists - 76, UOC-MP - 59,
Jehovah's Witnesses - 55, Seventh Day Adventists - 22, Evangelical
Christians - 10, Jews - 6, Muslims - 1.
The following
church-territorial units are located on the territory of the region:
UGCC - Archdiocese of Lviv (primate - Igor (Voznyak)),
Sambir-Drohobych diocese - Julian (Voronovsky), Stryi diocese - Taras
(Senkiv), Sokalsko-Zholkovskaya diocese - Mikhail (Koltun);
UOC-KP -
Lviv-Sokal diocese, primate - Dimitry (Rudyuk), Drohobych-Sambir -
Matthew (Shevchuk);
UAOC - Lviv diocese, primate - Makary (Maletich);
UOC MP - Diocese of Lviv and Galicia, primate - Filaret (Kucherov);
RCC - Archdiocese of Lviv, primate - Mieczysław Mokrzycki.
The process of population decline in the Lviv region is determined by
both the natural decline in the population and the migration outflow of
the population. The age composition of the population, as well as in the
western regions as a whole, is characterized by an increased proportion
of people younger than working age.
In 2007, 21,823 marriages and
6,558 divorces were registered in the region. Marriage and divorce
rates, respectively, were 8.5 and 2.6 ppm. In urban settlements, the
marriage rate is higher than in rural areas - respectively 9.6 and 6.8
units per 1000 people. The average number of children born per woman in
2007 was 1.4. Average life expectancy (calculated in 2006-2007) was 70.7
years, with 65.09 years for men and 76.6 years for women.
In
2007, 27.5 thousand people were born in the region, 34.9 thousand people
died. The greatest number of deaths was caused by diseases of the
circulatory system - 22,137 persons (63.4%), neoplasms - 3960 (11.3%),
external causes of morbidity and mortality - 2298 (6.6%), respiratory
diseases - 1468 (4. 2%), diseases of the digestive system - 1268 (3.6%),
some infectious and parasitic diseases - 607 (1.7%). At the end of 2009,
the Lviv region ranked 5th in Ukraine in terms of the prevalence of HIV
infection.
Unemployment
As of January 1, 2009, the level of
registered unemployment (calculated as the ratio of the number of
unemployed registered with the state employment service to the average
annual working age population) in the region was 2.7% [29]. The
unemployment rate in rural areas was 4.0%, in cities - 2.0%. The highest
level of registered unemployment was in Brodovsky (8.3%),
Przemyshlyansky (6.5%), Zolochevsky (5.9%), Starosamborsky (5.4%),
Mykolaivsky (4.8%), Radekhovsky (4. 7%) districts and cities: Morshyn
(9.7%), Novy Razdol (5.2%).
Migration
Unemployment generates
significant migration flows. According to the regional department of
citizenship, immigration and registration of natural persons at the end
of 2009, from 150 to 200 thousand residents of the Lviv region are
abroad[19]. In particular, about 40% of Ukrainian labor migrants working
in Italy come from the Lviv region
According to the results of the "Environmental rating of enterprises - the main polluters of the city of Lviv and Lviv region" for 2007, which is maintained by the State Department for Environmental Protection in the Lviv region, the largest environmental pollutants in the Lviv region are: Pulp and Paper Plant, Lviv Research Naftomaslozavod OJSC, Nikolaevcement OJSC, Dobrotvorskaya TPP, Lviv Coal Company OJSC, Morshinvodokanal utility company, Zbiranka Lviv utility company, Lvivvodokanal, Polimineral GHCP, LLC Ecological Group Bug, UGG Lvovtransgaz.