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Belarus is a country in eastern Europe.

Belarus is a landlocked country with no coastline.

The land is mainly flat and marshy.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Belarus, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 53 00N
Longitude - 28 00E

The capital of Belarus is Minsk.

Belarus is a presidential republic and the president has wide powers. At the last election no significant candidate was allowed to stand against him. He won.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Belarus is the Belarusian ruble. Belarus is not a member of the European Union.

Belarusian and Russian are the official languages.

Check the weather in Minsk now.

This is the time in Minsk now.

The Belarusian flag is 2 unequal horizontal stripes of red and green with the red stripe at the top and it being twice as large as the green one. On the flagpole side there is a white vertical stripe with red patterns.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Belarusian National Anthem called State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus. It was adopted in 1955 and lyrics added in 2002. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

 We, the Belarusians, peaceful people,
Our heart is to our native land,
We maintain generous friendship and gain our powers
CHORUS:

Glory to the bright name of our land,
Glory to the fraternal union of our peoples!
Our beloved mother-Motherland,
Long you live and flourish, Belarus!

Together with brothers, with fortitude, during centuries
We guarded our native thresholds,
In struggles for freedom, in struggles for fate,
We have been gaining our banner of victories.

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The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Belarus is 202,900 sq kms which is the 12th largest in Europe.

Belarus has lakes, rivers and canals which total 4,700 sq kms.

Belarus has boundaries with 5 countries

• Russia 1,312 kms
• Ukraine 1,111 kms
• Lithuania 640 kms
• Poland 418 kms
• Latvia 161 kms

Belarus has no coastline.

The highest point in Belarus is Dzyarzhynskaya Hara at 346 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Belarus is 9.57 million people, making it the 16th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 5.12 million are females and 4.45 million are males.

A person from Belarus is called a Belarusian.

To be a citizen of Belarus, one of your parents must be a citizen of Belarus. It is not sufficient to be born in Belarus. You have to live in Belarus for 7 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Belarus, by population are:-

• Minsk 1,742,124 people
• Gomel 480,951
• Mogilev 369,200
• Vitebsk 342,700
• Hrodna 317,365

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



76.7% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Belarus is 10.5 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Belarus is 13.3 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 3.2 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 4.0 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 42.9 and for males is 36.8. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 25.1.

The elderly dependency ratio is 20.6. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 4.9. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Belarus spends 5.7% of its total income on health care.

There are 3.93 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 11.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

24.5% of the population are estimated as obese.

99.9% of the urban population and 99.1% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

94.1% of the urban population and 95.2% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Belarus releases 70.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 14th highest in Europe.

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Belarus spends 4.9% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Belarus. Compulsory education is for nine years until age 15 but most pupils continue through to 18. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 2 terms and starts in the first week of September and finishes at the end of May. There is usually a 2 week break at New Year.

99.7% of females and 99.8% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

10.7% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 8.5% are unemployed while with males 12.6% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Belarus is 4.55 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

1.0% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 33 paved airports in Belarus, which is the 16th highest number in Europe.


There are 5,528 kilometres of railways in Belarus, which is the 14th longest in Europe.


There are 74,651 kilometres of roads in Belarus, which means Belarus is in 18th place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 5 major national newspapers in Belarus.

There are 11.45 million mobile phone users.

47% of the people have a fixed landline.



5.97 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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