Marriage stats

Continuing the topic of population growth. I've just read some statistics about marriages of Belarusian citizens to foreigners in 2007. The total number is 4588 marriages registered in Belarus. I guess there are others registered outside the country. It makes every 20th marriage, hmm, this sounds more impressive:D And then the ranking, Belarusian girls choose (every 20th one):

1. Russians - 1019
2. Ukrainians - 385
3. Other CIS countries - 386
I guess the main factors here were language (most of them can still speak Russian) and freedom of movement.
4. Germans - 133. For me it an interesting figure, I am not quite sure if it is a result of different agencies work, or just people to people contact.
5. Israeli - 65. My guess is that many immigrants from Belarus to Israel come back to marry:)
6. Polish - 44. Again, language is similar and country is close.
7. American (US) - 33.
8. Canadian - 17.
Well, number is not that big after all, but one more argument for the statement that borders do not matter.
9. Turkish - 15.
10. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania together brought 110 Baltic men to those marriages. Again, neighbours!

For Belarusian men stats are a bit different, less of them marry foreigners. There you go, countries where they wives come from:
1. Russia - 1020. Almost 0 balance in comparison with Russian men above.
2. Ukraine - 362.
3. Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) - 80.
So Belarusian men are less eager to go far away to search for future wives:)

I have to admit that the picture is quite interesting. I would be fun to see statistics next year.

The world is really going mad...

I've just read a news about statistics, but not just usual staff, the numbers of people who died for several reasons in Belarus over the last 9 months. I could never think of those numbers and now I see them and I am shocked. It's not a secrete that the number of people who have died from cancer is somehow hidden behind the other illnesses, but there are other very important ones. Just think of it, over the last 9 months 2,127 commited suicide!!! That's not normal, I mean, of course it depends on the perseption, but it's just not OK at all. In the country with the population of about 10mln you can not have 2 thousand of suicides in 9 months, do people loose any hope for peace and harmony in this life? I AM shocked! Next number - 1,767 died from alcohol poisoning... No comments, really I have nothing else to add.
And the population of this country is shrinking...