Social and economic transformations which are taking place in the Ukrainian society, the development of market relations, fast scientific and technical progress require the introduction of the model of the continuous knowledge upgrading that is necessary for the successful professional and personal development. The problem of educational needs is an interdisciplinary field which is defined by the complex of social and humanitarian sciences. The determining place among these sciences belongs to philosophy of education, sociology and pedagogy. The author is of the opinion that the investigation of educational needs of Ukrainian citizens will allow characterizing the educational situation in the country, substantiating the mechanisms of regulating separate subsystems of modern adult education and identifying some problems which hinder the development of this educational branch. There have been considered the questions of meeting the educational needs of the population as well as the peculiarities of forming the educational needs. In addition, the author's understanding of the term "educational needs" and their characteristic features have been offered in the paper. The article represents the results of investigating educational needs in one of Ukraine's regions, the purpose of which was to identify the requirement level of educational needs, to assess the quality of the provided educational services, to distinguish the motives of their use and the perspectives of their dissemination in the region.