A regular meeting of the standing commission of the Lutsk City Council on social protection, healthcare, motherhood and childhood was held, at which the current demographic situation in the city was considered. The head of the city executive committee's healthcare department, Fedir Koshel, presented this information. According to him, the city's population as of 01.01.2005 was 202.9 thousand people. First of all, he noted that the number of able-bodied population exceeds the number of elderly people, which is certainly a positive trend for the further development of the city's economic complex. \n \nFedir Hnatovych identified an equally positive trend as the positive indicator of natural population growth in the city, that is, Lutsk's birth rates are higher than death rates. In the region, as in Ukraine as a whole, natural growth is negative (as of 1.01.2005). It is important that today in Lutsk the infant mortality rate is 6.52 per thousand newborns (for comparison, in the region – 8.12, in Ukraine – 9.7). Thus, the growth of birth rates, the decrease in mortality, and the stable dynamics of infant mortality indicators in recent years testify to positive shifts in the socio-economic condition of the Volyn regional center and the medical care of the population. \n \nBased on the survey materials, a socio-medical passport of the city was created, according to which 108 thousand people have cardiovascular system problems, 4010 people are patients with diabetes, 438 with epilepsy, 1383 with tuberculosis (of which 118 have the active form), 245 are HIV-infected, 200 people are AIDS patients, 2615 people have mental disorders, and 784 people are drug addicts. \n \nEmigration processes have significantly influenced the city's demographic situation. In 1997, 218 thousand people lived in Lutsk. As of 01.10.2005, 204.6 thousand people were registered in Lutsk. However, several thousand unregistered citizens still live in Lutsk (approximately 26 thousand) who have deregistered but have not changed their place of residence. Of these, 12 thousand registered outside the city, and 14 thousand are entirely without registration. The main reason for this phenomenon is the desire to receive subsidies. Obviously, budget funds are not allocated to local hospitals for unregistered citizens, although they use the services of Lutsk medical institutions on an equal basis. And the funds allocated for the healthcare sector (culture, education, etc.) in accordance with the number of registered citizens already leave much to be desired. The absence of an effective mechanism for identifying and forcibly registering such unscrupulous Lutsk residents creates several other significant problems, namely: housing subsidies are granted without grounds, search services cannot find citizens, control over the criminal world has become more complicated, and the work of election commissions suffers. \n \nAccording to Fedir Koshel, without proper control over emigration processes and thorough maintenance of databases of the registered population, next year the city can expect only a deterioration of the demographic situation. \n