Why is Belarus so sparsely populated relative to Poland and Ukraine?

[Futurist]

Why is Belarus so sparsely populated relative to Poland and Ukraine? I mean, on this map Poland and Ukraine are shown as being much more densely populated than Belarus is:

Why exactly is this the case? Why do Poland and Ukraine each have around 40 million people while Belarus has only around 10 million people in spite of being of a comparable size?

 

[mark87]

My guess would be its terrain, climate, northerly location which firmly puts in the same camp as Russia, the Baltic's, Finland etc. Cold Climate, lots of forest and swap, people don't want to live there. If you re look at the map, you can see it looks a lot like those countries I mentioned.

 

[Edratman]

Belarus also suffered large population losses during WWII. Over two million residents were killed during the three years of Nazi occupation.

Belarus suffered the worst devastation of any country during the war in terms of a percentage of its population. Over a quarter of its population, 2,290,000 people, died during the conflict.

This Chart Shows The Astounding Devastation Of World War II

 

[deaf tuner]

My guess would be its terrain, climate, northerly location which firmly puts in the same camp as Russia, the Baltic's, Finland etc. Cold Climate, lots of forest and swap, people don't want to live there. If you re look at the map, you can see it looks a lot like those countries I mentioned.

The European countries with a density of less than 50 people/sqkm are:

Montenegro 47
Belarus 46
Lithuania 43
Latvia 30
Estonia 28
Sweden 22
Norway 16
Finland 16
Iceland 3

Figures seem to confirm Your reasonement.

 

[Futurist]

Belarus also suffered large population losses during WWII. Over two million residents were killed during the three years of Nazi occupation.

Belarus suffered the worst devastation of any country during the war in terms of a percentage of its population. Over a quarter of its population, 2,290,000 people, died during the conflict.

This Chart Shows The Astounding Devastation Of World War II

Yes, I know that. This certainly contributed to Belarus's relatively low population today--though it's worth noting that Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltic states likewise suffered huge losses in WWII--albeit not quite as huge as those of Belarus.

 

[Futurist]

The European countries with a density of less than 50 people/sqkm are:

Montenegro 47
Belarus 46
Lithuania 43
Latvia 30
Estonia 28
Sweden 22
Norway 16
Finland 16
Iceland 3

Figures seem to confirm Your reasonement.

Montenegro is a big exception here, no? Of course, it also has the highest population density out of the "below 50" countries.

 

[Futurist]

My guess would be its terrain, climate, northerly location which firmly puts in the same camp as Russia, the Baltic's, Finland etc. Cold Climate, lots of forest and swap, people don't want to live there. If you re look at the map, you can see it looks a lot like those countries I mentioned.

Yeah, that and deaf tuner's comment here appears to confirm this.