25 February, Minsk /Elena Prus - BELTA/. According to operational data, the population of Belarus as of February 1 of the current year (taking into account the results of the 2009 census) amounted to 9,478.7 thousand people. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by Elena Kondratenko, Deputy Head of the Department for Work with Users of Statistical Information of the National Statistical Committee of Belarus. Compared to January 1, 2011, the country's population decreased by 2.4 thousand people. The population reduction is due to the excess of deaths over births by 3,389 people, with a positive migration increase of 932 people (in January, 1,473 people arrived in Belarus, and 541 departed). The population increased in one month only in Minsk - from 1,864.1 thousand people on January 1, 2011, to 1,864.6 thousand on February 1 of the current year. In the other regions of the republic, the number of residents decreased in January. As a result, as of February 1, the Gomel region had 1,434.6 thousand people, the Minsk region - 1,411.2 thousand, the Brest region - 1,394.3 thousand, the Vitebsk region - 1,221 thousand, the Mogilev region - 1,087.4 thousand, and the Grodno region - 1,065.6 thousand people. -0-

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