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Eighty-four percent of Belarus' population are ethnic Belarusians, census suggests

Eighty-four percent of Belarus' residents interviewed during the 2009 population census described themselves as ethnic Belarusians, Alena Kukharevich, deputy chairwoman of the National Statistics Committee, said at a news conference in Minsk on September 8, as quoted by BelaPAN.

Eight percent listed their ethnicity as Russians, three percent as Poles, some two percent as Ukrainians and 0.1 percent as Jews.

The fifth-largest ethnic group in the Brest and Minsk regions was Armenians, while Roma were the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Homyel region.

Ethnic Belarusians accounted for 67 percent of the population in the Hrodna region, followed by ethnic Poles with 22 percent.

The number of Jews dropped by more than half, while the number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians shrank by a third compared with 1999 when the previous census was conducted.

The number of Chinese soared by more than 20 times in the period, while the Arab population increased by 170 percent and the number of Turkmens by 130 percent.

There were 23 Japanese and 17 Swedes living in Belarus in October 2009. Sixty-six Belarus citizens listed their ethnicity as "litvins" in a reference to the Grand Duchy of Litva.