{"id":160485,"date":"2025-10-17T18:17:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160485\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"belarus-high-prison-population-adversely-impacts-demographics-economist-warns","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/160485\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus\u2019 high prison population adversely impacts demographics, economist warns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>October 17, <em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> Amid persistently low fertility rates, Belarus\u2019 high prison population is having a negative impact on the country\u2019s demographics, said Le\u016d Lvo\u016dski, academic director at the BEROC think tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The economist presented the findings of his research in Vilnius at a conference on healthcare in Belarus, organized by the human rights group Doctors for Truth and Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lvo\u016dski noted that Belarus\u2019 fertility rate is among the lowest in Europe \u2014 1.06 children per woman, compared with the regional average of 1.5. As fertility continues to decline, researchers are observing a faster pace of population aging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He cautioned that his estimates rely on approximate figures and benchmarks due to the lack of reliable open-source data. According to various reports, Belarus has around 33,000 prisoners, or about 350 per 100,000 people \u2014 one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drawing on different sources, Lvo\u016dski estimated that the country has between 1,200 and 4,000 political prisoners. \u201cIf we take the upper estimate of 4,000 people, that accounts for more than 10 percent of all prisoners,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we talk about political prisoners, there\u2019s an additional demographic dimension: the growing desire to emigrate among other segments of society and the outflow of young people,\u201d Lvo\u016dski explained. \u201cFiguratively speaking, while a political prisoner is serving a sentence, he or she isn\u2019t starting a family. Two other people, who are not in prison, look at the political prisoner\u2019s fate and decide either to leave the country or to postpone having children until calmer times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What would happen if prisoners had as many children as free people of the same age? The economist made a rough calculation: \u201cAccording to my baseline scenario, we\u2019re losing about 828 children each year,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a significant number. Last year, 56,000 children were born in Belarus \u2014 so we\u2019re talking about roughly 3\u20134 percent of unborn children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He reiterated that his calculations are based on approximate data, as some key indicators are unavailable from open sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belarus\u2019 population fell by 1.1 million to 9.1 million on January 1 from 10.1 million on the same day in 1995.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 17, Pozirk. Amid persistently low fertility rates, Belarus\u2019 high prison population is having a negative impact on the country\u2019s demographics, said Le\u016d Lvo\u016dski, academic director at the BEROC think tank. The economist presented the findings of his research in Vilnius at a conference on healthcare in Belarus, organized by the human rights group Doctors [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":63993,"template":"","rubric":[21,15],"class_list":["post-160485","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-economy","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Belarus\u2019 high prison population adversely impacts demographics, economist warns | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 17, Pozirk. 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