Population

The population of the Republic of Belarus is about 10 million people, it is a multinational and a multireligious state. Over 70% of the population are urban residents. One forth of them (nearly 2 million) live in Minsk, the capital and the largest city of Belarus.

Population density
The average density of the population is 49 persons per sq km. The central regions of the country are characterized by the maximum density of the population (82 persons per sq km in Minsk region), the minimal density is recorded in the northern part of Vitebsk region (10 persons per sq km).

Ethnic composition
Representatives of over 100 nationalities live in the Republic of Belarus. Belarusians account for 81% of the country’s population. By the end of the 19th century Belarus was populated by people belonging to various language groups – Slavic (Belarusians, Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks), Baltic (Lithuanians, Latvians), Hamito-Semitic (Jews), Turkic (Tatars, Karaites), German (Germans, Swedes), Roman (Frenchmen, Italians), Finno-Ugric (Estonians), Indo-Aryan (Gypsies).

The second largest ethnic group, Russians, make up 11% of the population. Their number greatly increased after the Great Patriotic War. Russians are evenly spread throughout the territory of the country, their maximum number is registered in the eastern regions of Belarus (Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel) and in large industrial centers, where they account for about 20% of the population.

Poles make up 4% of the population of the country. They live in the western part of the country (Grodno, Brest, Minsk). Most of Belarusian Poles are rural residents, only 5% live in cities. Yet there are several towns and cities in Belarus where the number of Poles is historically big (Grodno, Lida, Postavy, Oshmyany, Mosty, Voronovo).

Ukranians account for 2.5% of the Belarusian population. They have resided in the country’s southern regions (Pinsk, Kobrin, Brest, Gomel, Rechitsa, Bobruisk) since the 18th century. Many Poles came to Belarus after the Great Patriotic War, these were mainly engineers, functionaries, scientists, men of art.

The number of Jews living in Belarus is 28,000. Their number has been steadily declining since 1980 due to emigration to Israel and Western Europe.

7,000 Belarusian Lithuanians are concentrated in the northern regions of the country (Voronov district of Grodno region, Braslav district of Vitebsk region). They have to a great extent assimilated with Belarusians and Poles.

Demographic situation
Natural population growth is essential for its increase. Unfortunately, over the last several decades it considerably declined as a result of social disturbances from 146,000 in 1960 to 50,000 in 1989. In 2002 100,000 children were born in Belarus, yet the demographic situation in the country is still close to critical. While the normal fertility rate is 2.7, in Belarus it is 1.3, which means that most families have only one child. A drastic degradation of living standards, social disorientation and Chernobyl catastrophe caused a gradual increase in the death rate in the second half of the 20th century.

Most premature deaths are brought about by cardiovascular diseases, cancer, accidents. Men’s life expectancy is much shorter than that of women (63 and 74 years respectively).

Age and social structure
The present age structure of the Belarusian population is characterized by a growing number of elderly people and a decreasing number of children. Senior citizens account for one fifth of the country’s population. Social structure of the population may differ depending on the pace of residence – the share of working age population among rural residents is 46%, while in urban areas the corresponding figure is 61%.

Belarusian diasporas
At the present moment about 3 million ethnic Belarusian live abroad, mainly in Russia, Ukraine, the USA, Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Argentina.