Human capital is on the rise

The population of Belarus in statistics and facts

Ten years ago, the world population reached seven billion people, and in 2021 it has increased by almost a billion more. The share of Belarus in the total number of earthlings is small: only 0.1 percent of the world’s population lives in our country. However, we, especially in recent times, occupy a much more significant position in terms of the level of involvement in global processes. And one more thing. Announcing World Population Day, which we all celebrated on July 11th, the UN emphasised: investing in human and physical capital in order to build a world in which health, dignity and education will be rights and reality, not privileges and empty promises is the main thing today. Recent statistics show that our country is moving in the right direction.

Lifestyle expressed in public employment

As is well known, human capital is a determining factor in economic growth in modern conditions.  In Belarus, this has been appreciated for a long time. No wonder about a quarter of the inhabitants of our country have a higher education. Moreover, the entire level of education of our compatriots is impressive: the 2019 population census shows the 99.87 percent literacy rate of the population aged 15 and over.
As many as 25 percent of the country’s adult population currently has a higher education, and almost 30 percent has a secondary specialised education.


An excellent result, considering that now other college graduates enter the labour market with several parallel specialties at once and, no less important, with solid practical skills. Thus, once lost prestige returns to blue-collar jobs: it is not uncommon for a skilled worker to earn higher incomes than some director.
In a situation like this, it is equally important that the public employment level be acceptable. In the first quarter of this year (that is shown by the data of a sample survey of households on employment problems), the employment rate of the population of Belarus amounted to 82.8 percent, the unemployment rate (in accordance with the methodology of the International Labour Organisation) — 3.7 percent of the labour force. This is a very good result.

The family is the foundation

The number of women living in Belarus, as in previous years, exceeds the number of men — at present, by about 700,000. However, this gap is smaller in rural areas. The average age of a representative of the stronger sex is now 38.2 years, of the fair sex — 43.3.

Almost 62 percent of the stronger sex are married. There are slightly fewer representatives of the beautiful half of humanity in this status — 52.7 percent. 
The age at first marriage has almost levelled off: for men it is 28.6 years, for women it is 26.3 years. For comparison: in 2010 this indicator was equal to 26.5 and 24.4 years, respectively. Maybe this is partly why there are not so many children: their share in the total population of Belarus is 19.96 percent. It won’t be enough...

Natural increase as a goal

In terms of population, Belarus is at the end of the first hundred countries. Belarus is ranked seventh among the CIS countries.
At the same time, according to the Human Development Index (HDI, data for 2019), we belong to the category of countries with a very high level: we are in 53rd place out of 189 countries.


Unfortunately, Belarus has not yet been able to solve the problem of population decline. The state, alas, is ‘aging’. According to Belstat, 9,255.5 thousand people lived in the country at the beginning of 2022, while a year earlier this figure was 9,349.6 thousand people. 
At the same time, according to the Countrymeters project, whose information is based on UN data, the population of Western Europe increased by more than 700,000 people in 2021. However, 8.095 million were born, and 8.269 million Europeans died.


How’s that? The answer is simple: the population is growing due to migrants in Western Europe. Including those that create problems for local residents, and even, as the events of recent months show, for Belarusians.
We are struggling with demographic concerns differently: we stimulate an increase in the birth rate, take support measures for families with children. One of the indicators of such work is the system of provision by the state of the so-called family capital at the birth of the third and subsequent children. As a result, the number of large families has increased significantly.
As of July 1st, 2022, 115,253 Family Capital deposit accounts were opened in the country. By the way, from January 1st this year, the amount of this capital is 25,995 rubles.

Between city and countryside

In the 21st century, people love comfort even more. Belarusians are no exception. The share of the urban population is getting closer to 80 percent of the total population of the country, while the share of rural residents is only 21.9 percent. This is, of course, a certain twist. The development of regions is a reasonable solution to the problem of population distribution. So that, relatively speaking, life in the village is as convenient as in the district centre, and in the district centre — as in the capital of the region.


Let us remember that it was the development of the regions that President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko defined as the key task for the upcoming five-year period back in 2020.

By  Aleksandr Nesterov