The People
In 1989 Belarus had a population of 10,200,000 and a population density of about 127 persons per square mile (49 per km2).
| Largest Cities | |||
| Minsk, the capital 1,612,000 | |||
| Gomel 488,000 | |||
| Mogilev 359,000 | |||
| Vitebsk 347,000 | |||
| Bobruysk 232,000 | |||
About 80 per cent of the people are Belarusians, or White Russians; the rest are chiefly Great Russians, Poles, and Ukrainians. Both Belarusian and Russian are official languages. Russian Orthodoxy is the prevailing religion, followed by Roman Catholicism. Education through high school is compulsory, and all education, including college, is free. The Belarusian State University and the Belarusian Academy of Sciences are in Minsk.
