Visitor information

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

Andrei Kobyakov (2014)

Total land area of Belarus

207,600 km²

Nationality of Belarus

Population – 9.498,4 million (on 1 January 2016)

  • Life expectancy at birth – 73.2 years
  • Population living in cities – 77.6%
  • The capital is Minsk – 1.959,8 million inhabitants

Regional centres of Belarus (on 1 January 2016):

  • Brest Oblast – 1.387,0 million inhabitants          (Brest – 340 thousand)
  • Vitebsk Oblast  – 1.193,6 million inhabitants          (Vitebsk – 376 thousand)
  • Gomel Oblast  – 1.422,9 million inhabitants          (Gomel – 531 thousand)
  • Grodno Oblast – 1.050,1 million inhabitants          (Grodno – 366 thousand)
  • Mogilev Oblast – 1.067,7 million inhabitants          (Mogilev – 378 thousand)
  • Minsk Oblast – 1.417,3 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

GNP (2015) Br869702 billion; per capita: Br91646 thousand

Commodity structure of export (2015):

  • mineral products – 29.9%
  • chemical industry production, rubber – 21.3%
  • cars, equipment and vehicles – 13.8%
  • black, nonferrous metals and products from them – 6.5%
  • articles of food and agricultural raw materials – 16.3%
  • others – 12.2%

Commodity structure of import (2015):

  • mineral products – 31.1%
  • cars, equipment and vehicles – 23.4%
  • black, nonferrous metals and products from them – 8.4%
  • chemical industry production, rubber – 13.6%
  • articles of food and agricultural raw materials – 14.6%
  • others – 8.9%

Main Business Partners of Belarus (2015)

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

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

4.5 million (2015)

Breakdown of employed population by type of economic activity (2015):

  • production sector – 23.6%
  • agriculture, hunting, forestry industry – 9.4%
  • civil engineering – 8.0%
  • transportation and communication – 7.4%
  • retail; repairs of automobiles, household goods, and personal-use items – 14.8%
  • education – 9.8%
  • others – 27.0%

Unemployment in Belarus

41.3 thousand unemployed (2015)

Communication Facilities in Belarus

Telephone (2015): main telephone equipment – about 4.417 million, mobile subscribers – 11.4 million

Internet users (2015): more than 9.6 million

In terms of overall postal e-services development, the Universal Postal Union index places Belarus in the top ten (2011).

Transportation

Railways – 5491 km, including 1128 km of electric track

Highways – 101,700 km, including paved roads 87,400 km

Oil pipelines – 2,983 km

Gas pipelines – 7,837 km