Demographics of Belarus, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

Population pyramid of Belarus

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook.

Population

10,293,011 (July 2006 est.) (NB the Belarus National Statistics Office estimate is considerably lower at 9,750,500 (end 2005) ¹).

Age structure

0-14 years: 15.7% (male 825,823/female 791,741)

15-64 years: 69.7% (male 3,490,442/female 3,682,950)

65 years and over: 14.6% (male 498,976/female 1,003,079) (2006 est.)

Median age

Total: 37.2 years

Male: 34.5 years

Female: 39.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate

-0.06% (2006 est.)

Birth rate

11.0 births/1,000 population (2008 Jan-Aug) [1]

In 2007 103,425 children were born. [2]

Death rate

13.7 deaths/1,000 population (2008 Jan-Aug) [3]

In 2007 there were 132,855 deaths. [4]

Net migration rate

2.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio

At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

Under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.5 male(s)/female

Total population: 0.88 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate

Total: 13 deaths/1,000 live births

Male: 13.92 deaths/1,000 live births

Female: 12.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

Total population: 69.08 years

Male: 63.47 years

Female: 74.98 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.22 children born/woman (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS

Adult prevalence rate: 0.3% (2001 est.)

People living with HIV/AIDS: 15,000 (2001 est.)

Deaths: 1,000 (2001 est.)

Nationality

Noun: Belarusian(s)

Adjective: Belarusian

Ethnic groups

Belarusians 81.2%, Russians 11.4%, Poles 3.9%, Ukrainians 2.4%, Jews 0.3%, Armenians 0.1%, Lipka Tatars 0.1%, Gypsies 0.1%, Lithuanians 0.1%, Azeris 0.1%, others 0.3% (1999 census).

Prior to World War II, Jews were the third largest ethnic group in Belarus, and comprised more than 40 percent of the population in cities and towns, where Jews and Poles were the majority, while Belarusians mostly lived in rural areas. By 1989, Jews accounted for only 1.1% of the population. The decrease is mainly due to the Holocaust.^{citation needed}

The Poles were the second largest ethnic group. After WW2 over 1 million Poles (including a large but unknown number of Catholic Belarusians) were forced to move to Poland. In exchange, the same number of Belarusians from the former Belastok Voblast, that remained Polish, were forced out to Belarus. Also many were killed or forced to Siberia and Kazakhstan during the Stalin era; see Population transfer in the Soviet Union. Today there are about 500 thousands Poles in Belarus. Lipka Tatars count for about 5-10,000. Poles, Lipka Tatars and Lithuanians mostly reside in western Belarus.

In the post-war period Belarus experienced an influx of workers from other parts of the Soviet Union, not just Russians and Ukrainians but also smaller numbers from non-Slavic regions, such as Central Asia, the Volga basin and the Caucasus. The decade after independence saw a decline in the population of most of these minority groups, either by assimilation or emigration. The most significant exception to this trend has been a continued (if small-scale) net immigration of Armenians, Azeris and Georgians. ²

Religions

In 1997, 80% of the religious population belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, other two main religions are Catholicism (which is most of the rest) and a small number adhering to Protestant Christianity. Besides that, there is a number of adherents of Islam and Judaism. During the times of the Soviet Union the majority of population was atheistic, and this situation did not change significantly with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, although the number of people declaring themselves religious grows. Catholics, Jews and Muslims mostly reside in western Belarus.

Languages

Official: Belarussian and Russian. Others: Polish, Ukrainian and Lithuanian.

Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over who can read and write

Total population: 99.6%

Male: 99.8%

Female: 99.5% (2003 est.)

Cities

See List of cities in Belarus

References

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2006 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.