Minsk City, the capital of Belarus, is located practically at the geometrical centre of the country,
on the crossing of two European communicational links “West-East” and “North-South”. Minsk
has been playing an important role in arrangement and development of international trade,
innovative enterprises, financial institutes and international events holding (conferences,
exhibitions, fairs, etc.)
Development of urban settlement networks in Belarus: problems and trends.
Belarus was agricultural country till the Second World War. In 1940 there were 65 towns and
108 settlements of an urban type and the share of the urban population to the total population of
the country was 21%1. Speed-up of urbanisation was noticed in 1950s2 when large enterprises
were built in cities and towns, which were rebuilt after the Second World War. The highest rate
of the population rise was appropriated for Minsk City, the capital of Belarus. At the post-war
period the population of Minsk have increased more than 6 times. This fact gives a possibility to
speak about the so-called "Minsk phenomenon"3. Minsk is the largest city of Belarus with
population 1,699.0 thousand4.
At the beginning of 2001 the population of Belarus was 9,990.4 thousand. The total number of
cities, towns and settlements of an urban type5 was 213 with a population of 7,013.6 thousand
residents6. The settlement network of Belarus includes 213 urban and 24,150 rural settlements
(01.01.2001). Density of human settlements is more than 117 units per sq. km. It is noticed the
drop of the rural settlement's density from the north to the south and their average size increase at
the same time. About 70% rural settlements of Belarus have less than 100 inhabitants. The
majority of such settlements are situated on the North in Vitebsk Region. Historical conditions as
well as natural differences determine this fact. Chernobyl disaster's consequences should be
considered as well7. About 130 thousand people had been resettled from contaminated territories
until 19998.
Till the year 1994 the population growth had been noticed. In that period the overgrowth of the
urban population and the rural population reduction had been marked (see figure 1). In 1994 the
population of Belarus decrease was noticed first after the Second World War was finished
because of sharp fall of birth rate and rise of death rate, which are not compensated by positive
migration balance. The forecast shows that the trend of the population wastage will be saving till
2015. If there is a middle variant of demographic reduction than the population will fall to 9.8
million (in pessimistic variant — 9.3 million.). In fact, the rural population rate will fall,
however, the urban population rate will increase in total number of the population9.
In cities and towns occupying 1,1% of the Byelorussian territory there is 70% of the population
of Belarus. High rate of the urban population is the result of active industrial development, which
took place until 1980. The components of that process were speeded growth of large and big
cities, which are considered to be leaders of social-economic progress and intensification of their
importance in social life. However, tasks of the control of big cities' extensive growth and
stimulation of small and middle towns' development are topical nowadays because of transition
to the sustainable development.
Typology of urban settlements of Belarus
There is rather developed and equable human settlement network that was historically defined in
Belarus. It reflects some specific features of natural conditions, economic activity, social-
economic, demographic and cultural development of the country. Conditions for urban