Belarus

B

Political Divisions

For administrative purposes Belarus is divided into regions or voblasts: Brest; Homel; Hrodna; Minsk; Mahilyow; and Vitsyebsk, which are divided into districts or rayons. The city of Minsk is administered separately from its voblast, as a municipality.

C

Principal Cities

Minsk, the capital and largest city, grew rapidly, and has a population of 1,705,000 (2003 estimate). Other large cities, with their populations, include Homel, 480,000 (2001 estimate), Mahilyow, 360,600 (2001 estimate), Vitsyebsk, 341,500 (2001 estimate), Hrodna, 307,100 (2001 estimate), Brest, 291,400 (2001 estimate), and Bobruysk, 221,400 (2001 estimate).

D

Religion

Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion among Belorussians, although Orthodox Christianity is also widely practised, especially in the eastern portions of the country. In 2002 repressive laws were introduced to clamp down on some of the minor religions practised in the country.

E

Language

The official language is Belarusan (or “Belorussian”), which is spoken by almost the entire population. Belorussian is an East Slavic language, a subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The Cyrillic alphabet is used to write in Belorussian. Russian is spoken by about ten per cent of the population. Polish, Ukrainian, Eastern Yiddish, and Tatar are among some of the non-indigenous languages.

F

Education

Education is compulsory, and free of charge for a period of 11 years. It usually starts with primary education at six years of age; this lasts for four years, and is followed by a further seven years secondary education. There has been a policy of placing greater emphasis on Belorussian language and culture in education since the early 1990s; in 1994-1995 some 35 per cent of all pupils were taught in Belorussian and some 65 per cent were taught in Russian. Approximately 361,493 pupils received primary education and 823,253 pupils received secondary education in 2007. Institutions of higher education include more than 40 general and specialized universities that were attended by some 556,526 students in 2007. Expenditure on education accounted for 11.3 per cent of total government expenditure in 2005.