According to the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, the aging of the nation is observed in the country. Director General of the Ministry of Statistics Alexei Yarkovets explained that the population is considered to be old by the UN classification, if the proportion of people aged over 65 years is 7%. In Belarus, the figure was 13.8% in early 2011.
The population of working age amounted to Br2.2 million (22.8%) at the beginning of the year. According to the National Statistics Committee, it’s increased by 55 thousand people for two years, BelTA informs.
Alexei Yarkovets notes that under working-age population (0-15 years) has recently reduced. It amounted to 1.5 million people (16% of the total population) on January 1, 2011. Compared to the beginning of 2009, this age group has decreased by 6.7 thousand people. According to the expert, it’s primarily caused by the reduced fertility in the 1990’s.
The share of working-age population is still quite high — 61.2% (5.8 million) as of January 1, 2011. Accordingly, 634 people disabled to work accounted for a thousand able-bodied Belarusians.
«However, the structure of the disabled population sees a decline in the number of people below working age, who could join the ranks of workers in future. In 1970, 1000 people of the working population accounted for 586 children under 16 years old, in 2000 — 356, and in early 2011 — 261 children. This is twice less than in the 70s of the last century,» said Alexei Yarkovets.
In addition, according to statistics, demographic burden among women is almost two times higher than among men because of the higher proportion of retirement age women.
Belstat expert also notes that similar trends will continue in the coming years, as small groups of people born early 1990’s will join working age.
As Telegraf previously reported, the population of Belarus amounted to 9.474 million on April 1, 2011. Compared with the beginning of the year the population has decreased by 7 thousand people. Natural population decline was 9.8 thousand.
