The country’s official language is Ukrainian, but in practise the situation is much more complex. In the 2001 census more than 85% of ethnic Ukrainians declared Ukrainian as their mother tongue. This is certainly an encouraging sign, but the average foreigner on the streets of Kyiv won’t be hearing the Ukrainian language anywhere near that often. Since independence in 1991, it has become much more popular and widespread. Still, Russian is heavily used in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, and only in western regions is Ukrainian truly predominant.