Belarus

Belarus’ official name is the Republic of Belarus and has a total area of 207,600 kilometres squared.

The country’s two official languages are Belarusian and Russian and the official currency is Belarusian Rouble (BYN).

Belarus has a population of 9.5 million people with 78 per cent of those living in cities.

Minsk has a population of 1.98 million people, while Gomel has 536,000, Mogilev has 381,000, Vitebsk has 378,000, Grodno has 371,000 and Brest has 348,000.

According to the 2009 Census, people of 140 nationalities live in Belarus.

Belarusians make up 83.7 per cent of the ethnic structure of Belarus with Russians accounting for 8.3 per cent, Polish for 3.1 per cent and Ukrainians for 1.7 per cent.

Other nationalities account for the remaining 3.2 per cent.

Nature

Belarus is a land of pristine nature with natural habitats and ecosystems occupying 55 per cent of the Belarusian territory.

There are more then 20,000 rivers and 10,000 lakes in Belarus.

Forty-two per cent of the country’s territory is covered by forest, while six per cent of the land is swamps and water bodies – Belarusian bog complexes are called the “lungs of Europe” - and 8.7 per cent is occupied by national parks and reserves.

Bison, the heaviest and largest terrestrial mammal in Europe, lives in Belarus.

Economy

Interesting facts

• The largest dump truck in the world is produced in Belarus with a capacity of 450 tonnes.
• State-owned fertiliser group Belaruskali accounts for 16 per cent of the world’s production of potash, an alkaline potassium compound.
• Every 10^th wheel tractor in the world is a Belarus tractor
• Belarus is among the world’s 15 leading exporters of dairy products
• Belarus ranks third in the world in terms of gross flax fibre collection
• Online game World of Tanks was developed by Game Stream, which is located in Minsk and is one of the main development centres of Belarusian company Wargaming