Emigration and aging of the population are main causes.
Official population censuses in Belarus conducted in 1989, 1999 and 2009 reveal a number of interesting trends.
They show that the population declines, the proportion of those who identifies themselves as Belarusians increases and the role of Belarusian language weakens. The period of Lukashenka rule coincided with the sharpest decline of population since the collapse of the USSR. READ MORE.