Mykolaiv Oblast

Mykolaiv Oblast, also called Mykolaivshchyna, is an oblast, or province, in southern Ukraine whose administrative center is the city of Mykolaiv. It was established within Soviet Ukraine in 1937 and covers 24,598 square kilometres, with one of the lowest population densities in Ukraine, about 45 inhabitants per square kilometre. The latest estimate in the article puts the population at 1,091,821 in 2022. Over the centuries the territory was ruled in whole or part by Scythia, the ancient Greeks, the Khazars, the Mongol Empire, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Poland and the Russian Empire, and ancient Olbia and the late medieval port of Ochakiv stood within it. Pervomaisk, formed by merging the Polish town of Bohopol, the Russian town of Olviopol and the Ottoman settlement of Holta, is the second-largest city and lies at the tripoint of three historic regions. The shipbuilding port of Mykolaiv, founded in 1789, grew one of the largest Jewish communities of the region.