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