Belarus

Map of Belarus

Country Name	Conventional long form: Republic of Belarus
Capital	Minsk
Population	9,643,566 (July 2012 est.)
Sex ratio	1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.46 male(s)/female total population: 0.87 male(s)/female (2011 est.)
Nationality	Belarusian(s)
Religions	Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)
Literacy: definition	Age 15 and over can read and write Total population: 99.6% Male: 99.8% Female: 99.5% (2009 census)
Languages	Belarusian (official) 23.4%, Russian (official) 70.2%, other 6.4% (includes small Polish- and Ukrainian-speaking minorities) (1999 census)
National holiday	Independence Day, 3 July (1944); note - 3 July 1944 was the date Minsk was liberated from German troops, 25 August 1991 was the date of independence from the Soviet Union
Independence	25 August 1991 (from the Soviet Union)
Location	Eastern Europe, east of Poland
Geographic coordinates	53 00 N, 28 00 E
Map references	Europe
Area	Total: 207,600 sq km Land: 202,900 sq km Water: 4,700 sq km
Area - comparative	Slightly smaller than Kansas
Land boundaries	Total: 3,306 km Border countries: Latvia 171 km, Lithuania 680 km, Poland 605 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km
Coastline	0 km (landlocked)
Maritime claims	none (landlocked)
Climate	Cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between continental and maritime
Terrain	Generally flat and contains much marshland
Elevation extremes	Lowest point: Nyoman River 90 m Highest point: Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m
Natural resources	timber, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas, granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, clay
Exports - commodities	machinery and equipment, mineral products, chemicals, metals, textiles, foodstuffs
Imports - commodities	mineral products, machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs, metals
Land use	arable land: 26.77% permanent crops: 0.6% other: 72.63% (2005)
Irrigated land	1,310 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources	58 cu km (1997)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)	total: 2.79 cu km/yr (23%/47%/30%) per capita: 286 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards	NA
Environment - current issues	soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine
Environment - international agreements	party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note	landlocked; glacial scouring accounts for the flatness of Belarusian terrain and for its 11,000 lakes