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Belarus SOCIETY
Population: 10,404,862 (July 1994 estimate) with
average annual growth rate of 0.32 percent.
Ethnic Groups: According to 1989 census, 77.8
percent
Belorussian, 13.2 percent Russian, 4.1 percent Polish, 2.9
percent Ukrainian, and remainder Lithuanian, Latvian,
Tatar, and
other.
Languages: Belarusian official language; Russian
is
language of interethnic communication; languages of
minorities
protected.
Religion: About 60 percent Orthodox (early
1990s).
Other denominations include Roman Catholic, Apostolic
Christian,
Baptist, Muslim, New Apostolic, Old Believer, Pentecostal,
Seventh-Day Adventist, and Uniate.
Education and Literacy: Compulsory attendance
ten
years; literacy 100 percent (1992).
Health: Health care provided by state, mostly
free of
charge. System overwhelmed by victims of the Chornobyl'
accident.
Infant mortality rate 18.9 per 1,000 live births (1994).
Life
expectancy (1994) 66.2 years for males and 75.8 years for
females. Modern medical equipment and facilities in short
supply.
In 1994 about 127 hospital beds and forty-two doctors per
10,000
inhabitants.
Data as of June 1995
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