Ukrainian dominates cultural content and social media use, study shows

Ukrainian is the primary language for consuming cultural content among surveyed Ukrainians, with 82% saying they most often consume cultural content in Ukrainian, according to a nationwide study by Research.ua publicly presented by Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture.

Another 15% of respondents said they most often consume cultural content in Russian, while 3% named English.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, respondents have been consuming more Ukrainian-language cultural content. More than half, 53%, shared that they do so much more often, while 17% said they do so somewhat more often. Another 27% consume Ukrainian-language cultural content as often as before, while 3% do so somewhat or much less often.

Ukrainian is also the most commonly used language online and on social media. Overall, 89% of respondents said they use Ukrainian in the digital space. Russian is used online and on social media by 33% of respondents, while English is used by 19%.

The survey was conducted online from Dec. 22, 2025, to Jan. 7, 2026, among 2,000 respondents — men and women aged 18–55 from all regions of Ukraine, excluding the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts. The sample reflects the characteristics of Ukraine’s urban population by gender, age and region of residence as of the start of the full-scale invasion.

The study aimed to examine public opinion on Ukraine’s cultural sphere, Ukrainians’ participation in cultural life, and everyday and cultural language practices.

As reported earlier, in 2024, the share of Ukrainian-language social media posts reached 56% for the first time since such studies began. According to a 2020 study, Oksana Zabuzhko, Lina Kostenko and Serhiy Zhadan were the most frequently mentioned contemporary Ukrainian writers on social media.

Related: Seven voices: Foreigners embrace Ukrainian language in act of solidarity

Images: commons.com.ua, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture