By Lyudmila Konovalova
According to the UNFPA’s Resource Centre of Belarus, around the same percentage of people live in cities in the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Over all, the country’s inner migration reflects a global tendency for urbanisation. In recent decades, Minsk has been enjoying especial popularity among Belarusians, becoming home to 20 percent of the Republic’s residents. Even if we take into account the number of students from rural areas entering universities in regional centres, Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel are certainly ‘losing’ their population aged 15-19 (compared to Minsk). Residents from other districts of the country are also arriving to the Minsk Region.
