Forty percent of Ukrainian information technology specialists plan to emigrate from Ukraine in 2026, according to a new study by DOU, the country's leading IT community platform. At the same time, 55% said they do not plan to leave, a figure that is 7 percentage points higher than last year.
The share of IT workers considering or already planning emigration has been falling. In 2025, 48% of respondents said they were thinking about or planning to leave, and in 2024 that figure stood at 51%.
Who is most likely to leave
Men were far more likely than women to consider emigration, with 47% of men saying they were thinking about it compared with 24% of women. Younger professionals were also more inclined to move: 46% of IT workers under 25 said they were considering emigration, compared with 35% of those over 35.
The survey found that married IT specialists and those with children were more likely to say they intended to stay in Ukraine.
Emigration sentiment varies by city
Attitudes toward leaving differed significantly depending on where respondents lived. About half of IT workers in Kropyvnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Chernihiv and Odesa said they planned to emigrate.
By contrast, IT specialists in Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kharkiv were more likely to say they had no plans to leave the country.
Ukrainians abroad weigh returning
Among Ukrainian IT specialists who have already moved abroad, 21% said they plan to return to Ukraine, 38% said they do not intend to come back, and 41% remain undecided.
Willingness to return was highest among IT workers based in Moldova and Romania, at 34% each, followed by Croatia at 33%, and Bulgaria and Albania at 32% each.
About the study
DOU is one of Ukraine's largest online communities and media outlets covering the country's information technology sector, and it regularly publishes industry surveys tracking salaries, working conditions and workforce trends. The findings on emigration are based on a survey of 11,783 IT specialists in Ukraine and 2,507 based abroad, carried out in May and June 2026.
The emigration study follows other recent DOU research on the sector. The outlet has previously identified IT specialists earning more than $6,000 a month, and named IT companies that appeared in an anti-rating of employers accused of most frequently concealing salary figures in job postings.
