Number of babies in Belarus never so low before
Belarusian mothers in Minsk. Photo AFP, Viktor Drachev
Eastern Europe
Not earlier since the country was declared independent has the number of babies were born in Belarus been so low. Available statistics show that about 79.4 thousand children were born.
For an unknown reason, the Belarusian population declined by 94.4 thousand. That could be seen in data published by Belstat, the national agency of Belarusian statistics, a few months ago. Although the agency does not give any reason for the development, journalists from Zerkalo extracted by a data analysis that the birth rate in the country has plummeted.
The journalists compared the number of children aged 0-4 years at the beginning of 2022 to the number of children aged 0-3 years at the beginning of 2021, Svaboda explains. Considering that not all babies living in the country are born in Belarus and the fact that some babies die before they are one year old, they concluded that less than 80.000 babies were born over the year in total.
According to their calculations, the decline in the birth rate is a trend that has been seen for years already. In 2020, the birth rate decreased by 4.1 per cent, while in 2021, 5.5 per cent fewer babies were born.
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