Context: Women in Minsk will receive extra payments for early motherhood. Starting in 2026, mothers who give birth before the age of 25 will be entitled to a sum equal to two subsistence minimum budgets in addition to existing benefits. This is about 1,000 rubles, or approximately $350. The extra payment is a one-time benefit provided at childbirth. Similar payments have been instituted in several Russian regions for several years. In some cases, they are tied to a young age, while in others, they are based on a woman's status as a student. And recently, in several regions, these benefits have also been extended to underage mothers.
The BelTA news agency published the report on Lithuania’s declining birth rate on January 15, 2026.
“Luminor Bank senior economist Zygimantas Mauricas stated that Lithuania is witnessing a demographic suicide, Lithuanian media report. Demographic suicide — this term aptly characterizes the birth rate data in Lithuania, the economist noted. He pointed out that in 2025, only 17,500 children were born in Lithuania, and the total fertility rate dropped to 1.0,” the authors of the text wrote, drawing on the words of the Lithuanian expert.
Data on the 17,500 children born in 2025 has not yet been officially confirmed. Registry offices recorded more newborns — 24,000 — but this figure includes those born abroad.
Luminor Bank senior economist Zygimantas Mauricas did indeed call the birth rate situation in Lithuania a demographic suicide. However, BelTA staff omitted an important point: the expert compared Lithuania's problem to that of Belarus.
“We can find comfort only in the fact that birth rates are also declining rapidly in other countries around the world, and not just in wealthy ones. For example, in neighboring Belarus, the total fertility rate in 2024 was 1.0, and in the Kaliningrad region, it was 1.2. In China, it fell to 1.0, in the European Union to 1.4, and in India, it dropped below the 2.1 mark,” Mauricas wrote on Facebook.
Belstat data confirms his words: the fertility rate in Belarus is at the same level as in Lithuania.
Earlier, on January 9, BelTA published an article headlined “Demographic Collapse in Lithuania. Twice as Many People Dying as Being Born.” In it, the authors embellished the facts: the article on the Lithuanian portal LRT, which the agency staff recounted, did not call the situation a collapse. Furthermore, the mortality rate in Belarus is also double the birth rate.
