Population

The Poles follow the Russians in size of the population in Belarus — 396 thousand people (3.9%). They have been inhabiting western areas of Belarus for several centuries. Their population varies in density, but Polish population is mostly concentrated in the western areas of Grodno, Brest, Vitebsk and Minsk Regions. The larger fraction of the Belarusian Poles is the rural population. In accordance with the 1999 census, only 65.5 thousand of Belarusian Poles stated their native language to be Polish, 265.4 thousand — Belarusian, the remaining number — Russian. Almost all groups of Belarusian Poles are dispersed among the local population; however, they keep specifics of their language, culture, everyday life, mentality and religion.

The Ukrainians rank fourth in the size of the resident population following Belarusians, Russians and Poles in Belarus (according to 1999 census, 237 thousand people or 2.4% of the population). The Ukrainian population with the distinctly expressed self-consciousness migrated to Belarus mainly in the 18-20th centuries. In the early 20th century, the most numerous Ukrainian groups resided in Pinsk, Kobrin, Brest, Gomel, Rechitsa, Bobruisk, and Bykhov districts. Mainly urban citizens — industrial specialists, clerks, intelligentsia and workers of art and culture — moved to Belarus after the WW II.

The Jews rank fifth in size of the ethno-confessional group in Belarus (28 thousand). Since 1980s, their size substantially diminished due to emigration to Israel and other countries. Over the recent years, the migration flow significantly reduced. They are not densely grouped, but mainly reside in towns and urban settlements. They communicate predominantly in Russian.

According to 1999 census, nearly 6.4 Lithuanians reside in Belarus. They have been residing generally in dispersed groups in Belarus for a long time; however, their dense population characterizes some villages (Ostrovetsk and Voronov Districts of Grodno Region and Braslav District of Vitebsk Region). Lithuanians are substantially dispersed in Belarusian and Belarusian-Polish ethnic environment.

According to 1999 census, other nationalities inhabit Belarus: Tatars, Azerbaijanians, Armenians, Latvians, Koreans, Germans, Georgians, Ossets, Gypsies, Moldavians and others. Migration processes that substantially intensified over the last decade somewhat change the general pattern of ethnic minorities in Belarus. Some groups, for example, reduced (Jews, Latvians, Germans and Estonians), while the others increased in size mainly due to the inflow from “hot spots” (Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanians, Ossets, Tadjiks and so forth).

3 million Belarusians and their descendants reside outside Belarus, mostly in Russia, Ukraine, USA, and Poland, as well as in Latvia, Lithuania, Canada and Argentina.

Employment. Continuously improving economic situation in Belarus in the social and labor sphere gradually stabilizes the employment level in the economy real sector. Currently, the unemployment level in the republic is 3.0% (in percentage to the economically active population).

Since the priority is given to final sectors of the manufacturing industry, such as motor industry, tractor and agricultural machinery building, optical, radioelectronics, precise instrument-making and other industries requiring a highly qualified labor, Belarus has developed an efficient qualified personnel training system promoting a high educational level of the population. Currently, there are 380 employees with higher and secondary special education and 580-690 (depending on the sector) employees in the service sphere for 1,000 people employed in the real sector of the economy. To financially assist the unemployed and finance actions to promote employment, the extra-budgetary State Employment Promotion Fund has been established. Compulsory contributions from enterprises, organizations and businessmen and subsidies from republican and local budgets, as well as other revenues form the Fund’s resources. The Fund’s money is spent to pay unemployment allowances, stipends during professional training and retraining, children allowances, and to provide financial support. The Fund’s resources are used to finance public works and overheads to cover the Employment Service operation.