Social and Economic Development

Belarus in global ratings and national statistics

Facts & Figures as of January 2010

According to the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) figures, published in the «Member Countries in Figures 2009» bulletin, a salary gap between men and women in Belarus is lower than in most UNECE Member States and is equal to that of Germany, US and Switzerland.

By the GDP per capita, Belarus is ahead of some Eastern European countries and most of CIS countries.

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in 2009 Belarus was the leader in terms of women’s share in the parliament among the CIS countries, standing at No. 19 in the 188-countries list. In Belarus, there are also more female MPs than in Poland (56 place), UK (60 place), France (66 place), US (71 place), Kazakhstan (75 place), Russia (82 place), Ukraine (111 place).

The World Health Organization in the «World Health Statistics 2009» report indicates that Belarus takes up the lead in Europe by a number of indicators. For example, Belarus has come along in the area of antenatal care coverage.

By access to improved water supplies, Belarus has a similar situation with such EU Member States as Austria, Denmark, France, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden.

According to the figures, announced at the UN regional conference on the impact of economic crisis on social area in countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Turkey (7-8 December 2009, Almaty, Kazakhstan) attended by the representatives of the ILO, UNICEF, FAO and UNDP,  Belarus has a good potential in preventing poverty in families with children, is ahead of all CIS countries by the value and structure of allowances for children and by income level of families with two children.

Apart from that, a UNICEF background paper says that Belarus is the only country which pays universal allowances for children aged under three.

The International Road Transport Union in its «New Eurasian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI)» report characterizes Belarus border crossing points as «easy» meaning that a crossing is a speedy and cost effective one.

According to the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, in 2009 Belarus notched up a 0.2 per cent growth of its GDP against 2008.

Capital investments and investments in construction went up by 8.6 per cent against 2008. In 2009, the value of construction and assembly work in Belarus was 19.4 per cent higher than in 2008. A housing space of 5,849 million square metres was commissioned in 2009 which is a 14 per cent increase against 2008.

Economic and Social Development of Belarus: preliminary results of 2008 and estimates for 2009 by national and international statistics

Economic Development Review: Belarus 2008