The size of the resident population of Belarus amounted to 9,898.6 thousand people as of 01.01.2003, while urban residents accounted to 71.7%. To over 24% of the urban population resides in the Belarusian capital.

Population Density. Belarus is a comparatively densely populated country. The average population density is 48 persons per 1 km². The territory of the republic is inhabited rather uniformly, most densely — central regions (Minsk Region — 81 persons, Grodno Region — 47 persons per 1 km²). The low population density is in the north of Vitebsk Region (Rossony and Verkhnedvinsk Districts — less than 10 persons per 1 km²).

The sex-age structure of the population is as follows: males account for 46.9% and females — 53.1%. As of the early 2002, there were 1,134 females for 1,000 males. In the age group under 15 years of age, boys account for 51.3% and girls — 48.7%. Above 60 years of age, the male-to-female ratio is 1 to 1.8 and above 80 years of age — 1 to 3.5.

18.5% of the population is younger of the able-bodied age, 60.3% of the population are males at the age of 16-59 years and females — 16-54 years (i.e. population of the able-bodied age), and 21.2% of the population is above the able-bodied age. Over the last 30 years, the fraction of children reduced from 28.9% to 17.5% in the population structure, while the share of population above 60 years of age increased to make up 19.2% accounting for 30.6% in rural and 14.4% in urban areas. Each fourth Belarusian citizen is of a pension age. In general, the Belarusian population is aging like in other European countries and this problem is more acute in the rural areas. The natural growth mainly contributes to the increment of population in Belarus.

It rather rapidly reduced in the 1970s-80s (from 146.2 in 1960 to 50.0 thousand people in 1989), and it reduced even more significantly in 1990s. A number of factors affected the drop in the birth rate over the last decades: features of the age structure (the women — children of “children of war” — reached the childbearing age), change in the social orientation and environmental consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and so forth. See also the Section Public Health.

National Composition. Belarus is a polyethnic and polyconfessional state in which over 130 nationalities reside with Belarusians (8,159 thousand people, 81.2% of the total population). According to 1999 census, 1,142 thousand Russians (11.4% of the total population) reside in Belarus. Ethnic Russians have been residing in Belarus over its entire history. The Russian population started to increase more profoundly in Belarus over the period after the WWII when workers, specialists of different spheres of the national economy, science, art, party and Young Communist League functionaries moved to Belarus. The density of the Russian population varies in Belarus and distinctive enclaves are absent. However, larger groups reside in the eastern regions (Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel Regions), in the Belarusian capital and large industrial centers where they make up nearly 20% and more of the population.

The majority of Russians are substantially dispersed in the Belarusian ethnic surrounding, however, they keep their national self-consciousness, including the native name and language, and the believers practice their religion. In social/political and national terms, the Russian population enjoys broad opportunities and perspectives to meet their own ethno-confessional and cultural linguistic needs. The Russian language is the state language equally with the Belarusian language.

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