АУТОР / AUTHOR(S): Ekaterina Antipova 
, Liliya Sushkevich , Anton Tsitou
DOI: 10.46793/CSGE5.59EA
САЖЕТАК / ABSTRACT:
The article assesses factors, the scale of demographic shrinkage of Belarusian cities and shifts in the spatial structure based on statistical data from three intercensus periods—1989–1999, 1999–2009, and 2009–2019. Using a set of methods of mathematical-statistical, balance, cartographic, typographers, geographic systematization and GIS technologies, for the first time in relation to Belarus, criteria for shrinking cities were determined, calculations of population dynamics for 1989–2019, indicators of natural and migration movements of the population, demographic balance of all cities of Belarus were performed.
The analysis established that the main factors of demographic shrinkage are the migration transition of the 1970s, the political and socio-economic transformations of the transition period of the 1990s, and the demographic transition of the 1980–1990s. The authors determined that 46.1% of the country’s cities are classified as shrinking.
A distinctive feature of the methodology in comparison with similar studies is the development of a typograph of cities by the nature of shrinkage, distinguishing three types (outpacing shrinkage, catching-up shrinkage and reversible demographic trend). There is a predominance of cities of catching-up shrinkage with negative population dynamics in two intercensus periods (1999–2009–2019) and a predominantly regressive type of demographic balance (68%), which are geographically distributed throughout the country. Every fourth shrinking city in Belarus belongs to the most unfavorable type—outpacing shrinkage with stable negative population dynamics in three intercensus periods (1989–2019) and a regressive type of demographic balance (since 1999), which are represented in the Vitebsk, Gomel, and Mogilev regions. A peculiar phenomenon is represented by shrinking cities of the third type (7.5%), located in the zone of radioactive contamination after the Chernobyl accident and the socio-economic periphery, in which, against the background of negative dynamics, a progressive type of demographic balance began to be observed.
The demographic shrinkage of Belarusian cities against the backdrop of the transition to post-industrial development has led to shifts in the spatial and functional structure. This trend manifested itself in a reduction of the area of production functional zones.
КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS:
shrinking cities; small-size urban settlement; regressive demographic balance; reduction of the production functional zones areas; types of shrinking cities