Population of Belarus
As of June 1, 2009, the population of the Republic of Belarus was 9,663,500. Belarus ranks fifth in the CIS after Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. The average density of the population is 48 people per 1 square kilometer.
In 2007, for the first time in the past decade, the number of newborns exceeded 100,000. The birth rate has been on the rise both in urban and
rural regions.
A total of 107,900 babies were born in Belarus in 2008, 4,500 babies more than in 2007. A total of 77,200 marriages and 36,700 divorces were registered in
2008. The number of registered marriages was down 14.6% over 2007, the number of divorces increased by 1.5%.
In 2008, 4.5 million people were employed in the national economy; 55% worked for state-run enterprises, 45% for privately-held companies.
Life expectancy at birth has been lately improved in Belarus. Since 2004 life expectancy for men has increased from 62.7 years to 64.5 years (up 2.9%), and that for women from 74.7 to 76.2 years (up 2%). The number of women is higher than that of men in Belarus. More boys are born than girls yet the mortality rate among men is higher than that among women. 
Internal migration has been predominantly flowing from rural areas to urban population centres. The government has been taking comprehensive measures to improve the living and working standards in rural areas with a view to re-directing the internal migration flows and flattening out the demographic differences. Two national programmes for rural revival and for the development of small and medium towns are aimed at achieving the goals.
The number of women is higher than that of men in Belarus largely due to differences in birth/death rates between men and women.
The migration inflow in 2007 amounted to 4,676 people (14,155 people came to Belarus and 9,479 people left the country). As migration inflow is considered as a factor, which compensates for the natural population loss, Belarus is expected to welcome 5,000 migrants annually.
Belarus was the first CIS country to adopt the Demographic Security Law in 2002. Belarus is currently implementing the 2006-2010 National Demographic Security Programme and the presidential programme Children of Belarus designed to run from 2006 till 2010.
Belarus has been consistently taking measures aimed at enhancing pecuniary aid to families with children, improving birthrate and providing an environment, which encourages meeting the birthrate targets.
There are also plans to further improve taxation schemes for citizens with children.
The national healthcare system has been assigned essential tasks related to participation in improving the demographic situation in Belarus. The measures underway include improving the family planning and women’s consultation services, timely detection of congenital disorders, prevention of major socially-perilous diseases, a better access to modern-day medical assistance at all levels, introduction of cutting-edge treatment, diagnostics and rehabilitation
The National Demographic Security Programme is meant to create appropriate conditions for boosting reproduction. The state demographic policy is aimed not only at increasing the population, improving living standards, but also at enhancing the nation’s human capital.
Ethnic Breakdown
According to the 1999 population census, Belarus is home to people representing more than 130 ethnicities. The most numerous of them are as follows:
- Belarusians – 81.2%;
- Russians – 11.4%;
- Poles – 3.94%;
- Ukrainians – 2.4%;
- Jews – 0.3%.
Belarusian Diaspora
The Belarusian nation has a rich and checkered history and is made up of not only citizens of the Republic of Belarus but Belarusian communities almost in all continents of the planet. At the beginning of the 21st century there were 12 million Belarusians in the world; three million of them lived abroad.
Around 1.2 million Belarusians live in foreign countries. Up to one million people live in the United States and Canada, around 130,000 in Israel, 20,000 in Australia, around 7,000 in Great Britain. The largest Belarusian diaspora is in Russia (over 1 million). According to the 2002 census, there were 814,700 Belarusians in Russia (over 1 million according to the unofficial data), which made up 2.9% of the country’s population.
The Belarusian diaspora in the Russian Federation has a multilayer structure. It includes 17 regional cultural autonomies, around 70 Belarusian public organizations, communities, cultural and educational societies, and centers united into a federal national cultural autonomy called as the Belarusians of Russia, with the headquarters in Moscow. For the past fifteen years many new public associations of the Belarusians have sprung up abroad mainly in the post-Soviet Union countries, the CIS and Baltic states, and also in some European countries: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, France.
Delivering precise and genuine information about Belarus to compatriots abroad is an important task of the government. The Belarusianlanguage newspaper Golas Radzimy is published for this purpose. Broadcasts by the Belarus-TV international satellite channel and the Belarus radio station are available in the near and far abroad in Russian, Belarusian and other languages. In 2008, the informational and educational project of the Commissioner for Religions and Nationalities “Belarus Welcomes!” (http://Belarus21.by) was updated. The project targets the Belarusian diasporas abroad, ethno-cultural communities and confessions in the Republic of Belarus.
