East Ukrainian Village is one of the neighborhoods in the West Town community area, and has one of the largest concentrations of Ukrainians in the United States.

Ukrainian Village, like neighboring East Village, began as farmland. Originally, German Americans, who came mostly as immigrants in the mid-19th century, formed the largest ethnic group in the vicinity. With new waves of immigration starting in the late 19th century, by the turn of the century, the neighborhood was largely Slavic.

Over the past half century, Ukrainian Village has remained a middle-class neighborhood, populated largely by older citizens of Eastern European ethnicity. It is bordered (and affected) on many sides by areas suffering more poverty and crime. It was insulated somewhat from surrounding socioeconomic change in the large industrial areas on its south and west borders by the strong fabric of ethnic institutions as well as the staying power of the Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic congregations. As noted above, there are also significant ethnic cultural institutions in the area. Although Ukrainian Village continues to be the center of Chicago’s large Ukrainian community, the gentrification of West Town, Chicago community area is rapidly changing the demographic. Ukrainian Village continues to be home to approximately 15,000 ethnic Ukrainians.