"All The Children Of People We Know Are Gone."

• 29.05.2025, 10:15

Belarusians about demography in the country.

While the state media cheerfully report about "stability" and "development," statistics paint a completely different picture: Belarus is rapidly losing people.

Official data show that in 2024, about 60 thousand children will be born in the country, while more than 115 thousand people will die. This is the lowest birth rate in recorded history since 1950.

TikTok video BGmedia with these figures has caused a flurry of responses. The comments underneath are a true confession of the people. People share their pain, fears, and at the same time - anger.

"We live in poverty, where and to whom to give birth?" - summarizes one of the users.

TikTok users name the main reasons for the demographic collapse: poverty, devastation in the villages, the closure of medical institutions, the outflow of young people and a total lack of prospects. The words of those who live in the hinterland are especially acute.

"They are closing FAPs, there are no stores, the roads are broken. And how can old people get to the city? Schools and kindergartens are closing - there are no children."

Belarusian village is dying before our eyes. One of the commentators recalls.

"In 1996 there were 1,200 people in our agro-town, now there are less than 600. And 70% of them are pensioners."

Young people are leaving en masse - some to Poland, some to Lithuania, some even farther away. They leave because there is no work, no housing, no hope at home.

"All the children of our acquaintances have left. And their parents are going to take them. We are planning to do the same - we can't bear it anymore."

"The salary is 900 rubles, the prices are crazy, we work for food."

"My son has left, my daughter will leave - I'm sick of this hopelessness."

"The country doesn't need children, the country needs soldiers and slaves."

There are those who admit that Belarusians simply don't want to start families in poverty.

"Four years of rented apartments. We thought about the second child - fuck it, there's nowhere to live."

The discussion continues in TikTok. Some blame the falling birth rate on the "luxury and laziness of youth", while others say it is the result of 30 years of stagnation and fear.

Many commentators agree on one thing: the problem is not only in the numbers, the problem is the feeling that there is no future.

"There is no future in this country".

"There will be only pensioners who voted for the Soviet Union".