Geographical position: the center of Europe.
Territory: 207,600 square kilometers. Belarus shares border with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, and Ukraine. It stretches 560km (350 miles) from north to south, 650km (460 miles) from east to west. Belarus is bigger than Austria, Ireland, Portugal, and Greece.
Time zone: GMT+2.
Climate: mild winters and warm summers, relatively high humidity. The hottest month is July, the coldest January.
Population: 9,471,900; urban population account for over 70 percent.
Capital: the city of Minsk. It is located at the same altitude as Hamburg and Dublin. The distance to the capitals of the neighboring countries: 215km to Vilnius, 470km to Riga, 550km to Warsaw, 580km to Kyiv, 700km to Moscow.
Ethnic composition: Belarusians (over 80 percent), Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Lithuanians, and other ethnicities.
Administrative division: six oblasts (Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, and Mogilev) and 118 districts.
Official Languages: Belarusian, Russian.
Religion: traditional religions are Christianity (Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches), Judaism and Islam. The majority of the population practise Orthodox and Catholic religions.
Monetary unit: Belarusian ruble.
National holiday: Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus (Republic Day), July 3.
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