25. The game “World of Tanks,” and the famous Viber App originated from Belarus.
26. Belarus has four UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
27. ‘Independence Avenue’ in Minsk is the longest street (15 km) in Belarus. The name of this street has been changed 14 times so far.
28. Belarus received about 60% of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
29. Chemical and nuclear pollution in the country are among its major environmental problems.
30. World War II took the lives of almost 25% of the population of Belarus.
Flag of Belarus
Flag of Belarus. Image credit – CIA
31. Primeval lowland oak woods can only be found in Pripyatski National Park, which is in Belarus.
32. About 45% of the country is covered by forest land.
33. Belarus also has the distinction of printing one of the first-ever bibles. This was done in 1517 in Prague.
34. The National Library of Belarus contains 8 million items of various media. Each day, the library sees more than 2,200 users and delivers 12,000 documents. It was founded on September 15, 1922.
National Library of Belarus. It has 22 floors and is 72 meters high. Image credit – Dennis Jarvis
35. Every city in Belarus has a Lenin street named after Vladimir Lenin – a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist.
36. During World War II, more than 800,000 Jewish people were executed by the Germans in Belarus.
37. The Minsk botanical garden is the third largest in Europe.
38. Belarus is slightly smaller than the state of Kansas in size.
39. There are approximately 6,805,786 internet users in Belarus.
40. The country has 86,392 km of roadways, and 5,528 km of railways.
41. Belarus has produced at least 68 Olympic champions in the past 50 years.
42. Belarusians can make at least 300 different recipes with potatoes. They can even make pancakes using potatoes.
43. The death penalty has been completely abolished in all European countries except for Belarus.
44. Approximately 40-45% of the country’s population is 25-54 years old.
45. The country spends approximately 6% of its GDP on health care and has a 99.7% literacy rate.
46. The country experiences a moderate continental climate.
47. “Lacinka” is the name of the Latin-script in Belarusian writing.
Belarus – the country at a glance
Independence
25 August 1991 (from the Soviet Union)
Capital City
Minsk
(53°55′N 27°33′E)
Largest City
Minsk
(53°55′N 27°33′E)
Area
total: 207,600 sq km
land: 202,900 sq km
water: 4,700 sq km
(slightly less than twice the size of Kentucky; slightly smaller than Kansas)
Population
9,501,451 (2024 est.)
Official Language
Belarusian and
Russian
Borders
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.
Currency
Belarusian ruble (BYR)
Religion
Judaism, Islam, Christianity.
Demonym
Belarusian
Suffrage
18 years of age; universal
Life expectancy at birth
74.7 years (2024 est.)
Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.
Climate
cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between continental and maritime
Terrain
generally flat with much marshland
Mean elevation
160 m
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
Agricultural land
43.7%
Birth rate
8.3 births/1,000 population (2024 est.)
Death rate
13.3 deaths/1,000 population (2024 est.)
Sex ratio
0.88 male(s)/female (2024 est.)
Government type
presidential republic in name, although in fact a dictatorship
President
Alexander Lukashenko
Prime Minister
Alexander Turchin
Literacy
99.9% (2019)
National symbol
no clearly defined current national symbol, the mounted knight known as Pahonia (the Chaser) is the traditional Belarusian symbol
