The population of Belarus suffered a dramatic decline during World War II, dropping from more than 9 million in 1940 to 7.7 million in 1951. It then resumed its long-term growth, rising to 10 million in 1999. After that the population began a steady decline, dropping to 9.7 million in 2006–2007. Originally a highly agrarian country with nearly 80% of its population in rural areas, Belarus has been undergoing a process of continuous urbanization. The share of its rural population decreased from 70% in 1959 to less than 30% in the 2000s.
Prior to World War II, Jews were the second largest ethnic group in Belarus, and at 400,000 in the 1926 and 1939 censuses they even exceeded the number of Russians. Jews accounted for 7%–8% of the total population at that time, comprising more than 40% of the population in cities and towns, where Jews and Poles were the majority, while Belarusians mostly lived in rural areas. The Poles were the fourth largest ethnic group in Belarussian SSR, before World War II, comprising 1–2% of the population in the pre-war censuses.
The Holocaust decimated the Jewish population in Belarus, and after World War II, in 1959, Jews accounted for only 1.9% of the population. Since then, Jewish emigration to Israel and other countries reduced the number of Jews to 0.1% of the population. After the war, a large number of Poles were forced to move to Poland. In exchange, Belarusians from the former Belastok Voblast, which was returned to Poland in 1945, after being occupied in 1939 were displaced to Belarus. Due to changes in the western border of Belarus and Poland after World War II, the number of Poles in Belarus increased to more than 500,000 according to the first post-war census and to about 400,000 according to the 1999 census. Poles are now the third largest ethnic group in Belarus. There are around 15,000 of Lipka Tatars and about 10,000 of Ruska Roma. In the post-war period Belarus experienced an influx of workers from other parts of the Soviet Union, for example Russians and Ukrainians. The decade after independence saw a decline in the population of most of these minority groups, either by assimilation or emigration. The most significant exception to this trend has been a continued net immigration of Armenians and Azeris, whose numbers increased from less than 2,000 in 1959 to around 10,000 in 1999.
Languages
and Russian are the official languages according to the Constitution of Belarus. The constitution guarantees preservation of the cultural heritage of all ethnic minorities, including their languages. Russian, and not Belarusian, is the dominant language in Belarus, spoken normally at home by 70% of the population, and major cities such as Minsk and Brest are overwhelmingly Russian-speaking.
