The Republic of Belarus is a unitary multinational state. The major part of the population is the Belarusians. The Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Tatars, Jews and Gypsies have lived on the territory of Belarus for many centuries. Representatives of other ethnicities resettled in Belarus in the 20th century, mainly after 1944.

As of April 1, 2007, the population of the Republic of Belarus was 9 million 705.2 thousand. According to the 1999 population census, the Belarusians accounted for 81% of the total population; 19% are representatives of more than 140 ethnicities including the Russians – 11%, the Poles – 3.9%, the Ukrainians – 2.4%, the Jews – 0.3%, the Armenians and Tatars – more than 10 thousand people each, the Gypsies – about 10 thousand, the Lithuanians and Azerbaijani – more than 6 thousand each, the Moldavians and Germans – 4 thousand each and the Georgians – 3 thousand. 41 ethnicities are represented by ten and fewer people.

After achieving the state independence, the Republic of Belarus started democratising public life, reviving culture and national life of the Belarusians. Other national communities living in the country went through the analogous process. As of November 1, 2006 there were 124 public organisations and 25 ethnic communities in Belarus. 41 of them had a status of an international and national organisation.

These organisations implement cultural-enlightening, information, charitable and educational programmes and are supported by the national, regional and town authorities. The organisations study history, culture and art, organise meetings, seminars, festivals, exhibitions and conferences, establish links with the countries of origin. They set up cultural and educational centres, arts and crafts groups.

The ethnic communities get financial assistance from the government and local budgets for holding cultural and educational actions. The local budgets finance the development of arts and crafts, subsidise the activity of cultural establishments founded by the ethnic public associations.