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

Alexander 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

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 Business Partners of Belarus (2017)

• Russia
• Ukraine 
• China
• United Kingdom 
• Germany 
• Poland
• Netherlands 
• Lithuania
• Turkey
• Italy

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.

Transportation

Railways – 5480 km, including 1215 km of electric track

Highways – 102,000 km, including paved roads 88,200 km

Oil pipelines – 2,983 km

Gas pipelines – 7,837 km