The population of the Republic is about 9.8 million people. About 70% of population are city–dwellers.
The Republic of Belarus is a polyethnic and multiconfessional country that has always shown religious toleration. Apart from the Belarusians who constitute 81.2% of the dwellers there are more than 100 other nationalities. Traditionally in terms of religion the dominating beliefs are of Christianity — Russian Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Greek Catholicism (or the Unia Catholisism). There are the representatives of many other confessions such as Judaists (the Jews and Karaims) and Muslims (the Tartars).
According to the last cencus Belarus is a home for 1142 thousand Russians (11,4% of the total population). The Polish make 396 thousand people (3,9%), then go the Ukrainians — 237 thousand (2,4%) the Tartars — 13 thousand, the Lithuanians — 7 thousand and others.
Belarussian Diaspora is as big as 3 mln people who mainly live in Russia, Ukraine, the USA, Poland as well as in Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Argentina.
