Yushchenko was born in the village of Khoruzhivka in Sums'ka oblast', into the family of a teacher. In 1976, he was hired in Sums'ka oblast's branch of the USSR State Bank. He was later promoted to the post of deputy chairman of the Ukraine Agro-Industrial Bank in Kiev.
In 1993, he started working in the newly-formed National Bank of Ukraine and became its head in 1997. As such, he played an important part in the creation of Ukraine's national currency, the hryvnia, and the establishment of a modern regulating system for commercial banking.
In December 1999, Yushchenko was nominated as prime minister by President Leonid Kuchma and was ratified in this post by an overwhelming majority of 296-12 in parliament. Significant economic progress was made during Yushchenko's cabinet service, though critics argue that this was made possible by the general situation of the economy, and was not the result of his actions.
In 2002, Yushchenko became the leader of the Our Ukraine (Nasha Ukrayina) political coalition, which received a plurality of seats in the parliamentary election that year.
Yuschenko was elected president of Ukraine during a drawn-out disputed election in late 2004-early 2005.
Yushchenko is married to Kateryna Yushchenko-Chumachenko (his second wife). She is a Ukrainian-American born in Chicago and a former official with the U.S. State Department, where she worked as a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.
Yushchenko has five children: three daughters and two sons.