(1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 1,150 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: NA
Environment - current issues: soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine
Environment - international agreements: party to: Air Pollution, Air
Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Biodiversity, Climate
Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea
Geography - note: landlocked; glacial scouring accounts for the flatness of Belarusian terrain and for its 11,000 lakes; the country is geologically well endowed with extensive deposits of granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, and clay
People Belarus
Population: 10,335,382 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 17.3% (male 914,579; female 876,346) 15-64 years: 68.6% (male 3,443,859; female 3,643,628) 65 years and over: 14.1% (male 482,624; female 974,346) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: -0.14% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 9.86 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 13.99 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: 2.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.5 male(s)/female total population: 0.88 male(s)/female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 14.12 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: 74.56 years (2002 est.) male: Total fertility rate: 1.31 children born/woman (2002 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.28% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 14,000 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 400 (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Belarusian(s) adjective: Belarusian
Ethnic groups: Belarusian 81.2%, Russian 11.4%, Polish, Ukrainian, and other 7.4%
Religions: Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic,
Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)
Languages: Belarusian, Russian, other
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 98% male: 99% female: 97% (1989 est.)
Government Belarus
Country name: Republic of Belarus conventional short form: Socialist
Republic local long form: Respublika Byelarus'
Government type: republic
Capital: Minsk
Administrative divisions: 6 voblastsi (singular - voblasts') and one municipality* (harady, singular - horad); Brestskaya (Brest), Homyel'skaya (Homyel'), Horad Minsk*, Hrodzyenskaya (Hrodna), Mahilyowskaya (Mahilyow), Minskaya, Vitsyebskaya (Vitsyebsk); note - when using a place name with the adjectival ending 'skaya' the word voblasts' should be added to the place name note: Independence: 25 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
National holiday: Independence Day, 3 July (1944); note - 3 July 1944 was the date Minsk was liberated from German troops, 25 August 1991 was the date of independence from the Soviet Union
Constitution: 30 March 1994; revised by national referendum of 24 November 1996 giving the presidency greatly expanded powers and became effective 27 November 1996
Legal system: based on civil law system
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch: chief of state: President Aleksandr LUKASHENKO (since 20 July 1994) head of government: Prime Minister Gennadiy NOVITSKIY (since 1 October 2001); Deputy Prime Ministers Andrei KOBYAKOV (since 13 March 2000), Aleksandr POPKOV (since 10 November 1998), Sergei SIDORSKY (since NA September 2001), Vladimir DRAZHIN (since NA September 2001) cabinet: president; percent of vote - Aleksandr LUKASHENKO 75.6%, Vladimir GONCHARIK 15.4% elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; first election took place 23 June and 10 July 1994; according to the 1994 constitution, the next election should have been held in 1999, however LUKASHENKO extended his term to 2001 via a November 1996 referendum; new election held 9 September 2001 (next election to be held by September 2006); prime minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament or Natsionalnoye Sobranie consists of the Council of the Republic or Soviet Respubliki (64 seats; 56 members elected by regional councils and 8 members appointed by the president, all for 4-year terms) and the Chamber of Representatives or Palata Pretsaviteley (110 seats; members elected by universal adult suffrage to serve 4-year terms) election results: party affiliation data unavailable; under present political conditions party designations are meaningless elections: Judicial branch: Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president); Constitutional Court (half of the judges appointed by the president and half appointed by the Chamber of Representatives)
Political parties and leaders: Agrarian Party or AP [Semyon SHARETSKY,
chairman]; Belarusian Communist Party or KPB [Viktor CHIKIN, chairman];
Belarusian Ecological Green Party (merger of Belarusian Ecological
Party and Green Party of Belarus) [leader NA]; Belarusian Patriotic
Movement (Belarusian Patriotic Party) or BPR [Anatoliy BARANKEVICH,
chairman]; Belarusian Popular Front or BNF [Vintsuk VYACHORKA]; Belarusian
Social-Democrat Party or SDBP [Nikolay STATKEVICH, chairman]; Belarusian
Social-Democratic Party or Hromada [Stanislav SHUSHKEVICH, chairman];
Belarusian Socialist Party [Vyacheslav KUZNETSOV]; Civic Accord Bloc
(United Civic Party) or CAB [Stanislav BOGDANKEVICH, chairman]; Liberal
Democratic Party or LDPB [Sergei GAYDUKEVICH, chairman]; Party of
Communists Belarusian or PKB [Sergei KALYAKIN, chairman]; Republican
Party of Labor and Justice or RPPS [Anatoliy NETYLKIN, chairman];
Social-Democrat Party of Popular Accord or PPA [Leanid SECHKA]; Women's
Party or "Nadezhda" [Valentina POLEVIKOVA, chairperson]
Political pressure groups and leaders: NA
International organization participation: CCC, CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD,
ECE, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM
(observer), ISO, ITU, NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTrO (observer)
Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Valeriy V. TSEPAKLO chancery: 1619 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009 consulate(s) general: New York FAX: [1] (202) 986-1805 telephone: [1] (202) 986-1604
Diplomatic representation from the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Michael KOZAK embassy: 46 Starovilenskaya use embassy street address telephone: Flag description: red horizontal band (top) and green horizontal band one-half the width of the red band; a white vertical stripe on the hoist side bears the Belarusian national ornament in red
Economy Belarus
Economy - overview: Belarus has seen little structural reform since 1995, when President LUKASHENKO launched the country on the path of "market socialism." In keeping with this policy, LUKASHENKO reimposed administrative controls over prices and currency exchange rates and expanded the state's