Some Demographic Problems in Belorussia's Urban Population Change in 1959–1971

Abstract

AbstractThe relative significance of the natural and migrational components of population change are analyzed for urban places of the Belorussian SSR using a graphic analytical technique proposed by J. W. Webb (Economic Geography, 1963, No. 2). A total of 59 out of 204 urban places in Belorussia are found to have a net out-migration, most of them being places of 5,000 population or less, with few employment opportunities. In 26 places, natural increase is inadequate to compensate for the outflow, resulting in a population loss, and three other places combine an excess of deaths over births with net out-migration. All 28 places of 20,000 population or more combine natural increase with net in-migration, with the natural component predominating in six places and the migrational in 22. In Minsk, the republic capital, and the five other oblast centers, the migrational component represents 70 to 75 percent of the population increment.