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Key facts about Belarus

Belarus on the map of Europe

An introduction in facts and figures to this landlocked country in the north-east of Europe

Official Name

Republic of Belarus

President of Belarus

Aleksandr Lukashenko (1994 - present )

Prime Minister of Belarus

Sergei Rumas (2018 - present)

Total land area of Belarus

207,600 km²

Nationality of Belarus

Population – 9.491,8 million (on 1 January 2018)

Life expectancy at birth – 74.4 years
Population living in cities – 78%
The capital is Minsk – 1.982,4 million inhabitants

Regional centres of Belarus (on 1 January 2018):

Brest Oblast – 1.384,5 million inhabitants (Brest – 348 thousand)
Vitebsk Oblast – 1.180,2 million inhabitants (Vitebsk – 378 thousand)
Gomel Oblast – 1.415,8 million inhabitants (Gomel – 536 thousand)
Grodno Oblast – 1.043,7 million inhabitants (Grodno – 371 thousand)
Mogilev Oblast – 1.058,7 million inhabitants (Mogilev – 381 thousand)
Minsk Oblast – 1.426,5 million inhabitants

Ethnicity

Belarusian Russian Polish Ukrainian Jewish	83.7% 8.3% 3.1% 1.7% 0.1%
(Source: 2009 census)

Languages spoken in Belarus

Belarusian and Russian

National holidays in Belarus

Independence Day, 3 July

Currency of Belarus

Belarusian rouble (Br)

Economic indicators

GDP (2017) Br105.2 billion; per capita: Br11.1 thousand

Commodity structure of export (2017):

mineral products – 24.6%
chemical industry production, rubber – 18.4%
cars, equipment and vehicles – 18.1%
black, nonferrous metals and products from them – 7.0%
articles of food and agricultural raw materials – 16.6%
others – 15.3%

Commodity structure of import (2017):

mineral products – 29.0%
cars, equipment and vehicles – 23.1%
black, nonferrous metals and products from them – 10.0%
chemical industry production, rubber – 14.6%
articles of food and agricultural raw materials – 13.2%
others – 10.1%

Main Industries of Belarus

metallurgical
mechanical engineering, including tractors and agricultural, cars, machine-tool constructing and tool industry, instrument making, radio engineering, electro technical, electronic, optics-mechanical industry; and metal working
chemical and petrochemical
light industry
food industry

Area of farmland in Belarus

8582 thousands hectares (on 1 January 2016)

Agriculture

Areas of speciality in agriculture: grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beet, flax, meat and dairy industry

Natural resources

wood
peat
potash and rock salts
small oil and natural gas fields
granite
dolomite
limestone
clay
sand

Number of people in employment

4.35 million (2017)

Breakdown of employed population by type of economic activity (2016):

production sector – 23.4%
agriculture, hunting, forestry industry – 9.6%
civil engineering – 6.7%
transportation and communication – 6.7%
retail; repairs of automobiles, household goods, and personal-use items – 14.5%
education – 10.3%
others – 28.8%

Unemployment in Belarus

33.7 thousand unemployed (2017)

Communications

Number of mobile communication subscribers – 11.4 million.

Penetration of LTE-powered mobile communication services – 60%. At present the services are available in Minsk and all the oblast capitals as well as major district capitals across the country.

Number of fixed telephony subscribers – 47.5 phones per 100 residents.

Number of Internet service subscribers and users – over 11 million, including over 3 million of fixed broadband Internet access subscribers. According to the International Telecommunication Union, in 2016 Belarus was ranked 23rd by the number of broadband subscribers.

International bandwidth – 1,110Gbps.

According to a research by the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union, the Republic of Belarus is ranked 3rd among 87 countries in the development of digital postal services.