Another anti-birth rate record set in Belarus

A record low number of children were born in Belarus in 2023, reports the Ministry of Justice. According to it, last year more than 65 thousand births were registered in the country. This is catastrophically low, the agency notes. This is the lowest figure for the entire time that calculations have been carried out.

For comparison, in 1953 almost three times as many children were born in Belarus - 176,200. Then this number either decreased or increased (in 1973 - 144,729 children, in 1983 - 173,510). At the beginning of the 2000s there was a serious drop. In 2003, just over 88 thousand children were born, but then the birth rate began to rise again. In 2013, this figure was already more than 117 thousand.

In 2019 - before COVID, protests, repression and the mass exodus of Belarusians abroad - 87,602 children were born in the country.

The birth rate (the ratio of the number of births to the total population) also fell to a historical low last year. It was 7.08. This is less than during the Second World War. For comparison, in 2013 this figure was 12.46, in 2019 - 9.3.