Urban-type settlements in Belarus

According to a 1998 law of the Republic of Belarus,^[1] there ate three categories of urban-type settlements in Belarus:

• Urban settlements (гарадскія пасёлкі): with population over 2,000, industrial enterprises and developed residential infrastructure
• Resort settlements (курортныя пасёлкі, resort towns): with population of at least 2,000, sanatoriums, resorts or other health recuperation establishments, and developed residential infrastructure
• Worker settlements (рабочыя пасёлкі): with population at least 500, servicing industrial enterprises, construction sites, railroad stations, electric stations, or other industrial objects.

The notion of urban-type settlement is inherited from the times of Belarusian SSR within the Soviet Union.

As of August 1, 2008. there were 87 urban settlements, 6 worker settlements and 1 resort settlement (Narach).

Before the Soviet times, many modern urban settlements in Belarus were classified as miastechka/miasteczko ("market town").

References