Brest Voblasts

Brest Voblasts or Brest Oblast or Brest Region (Брэ́сцкая во́бласць; Bresckaja vobłasć; Бре́стская о́бласть; Brestskaya Oblast) is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center is Brest.

Important cities within the region include: Baranovichi, Brest, and Pinsk.

Geography
It is located in the southwestern part of Belarus, bordering the Podlasie and Lublin voivodships of Poland on the west, the Volyn Oblast and Rivne Oblast of Ukraine on the south, the Hrodno Volbasts and Minsk Voblasts on the north, and Gomel Voblasts on the east. The region covers at total area of 32,800 km², about 15,7% of the national total.

Kametnets Rayon of Brest Voblasts in few kilometers to the South-West from Vysokaye town on the Bug River the western extreme point of Belarus is situated. 2,7% of the territory are covered with Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, 9,8% are covered with 17 wildlife preserves of national importance.

It is often dubbed the Western gateway to Belarus. Geographically, the Brest Region belongs to the area known as Polesia. The area of the region was part of the Second Polish Republic from 1921 until 1939 largely as the Polesie Voivodeship, when it was joined to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Northeastern part of it was administrated as part of Nowogrodek Voivodeship.

Demographics
The Brest Voblasts has a population of 1,394,800, about 14,7% of the national total. About 47.2% of the region's population are men, and the remaining 52.8% are women. Number of inhabitants per 1 km2 is 43.

Of the major nationalities living in the Brest Voblasts, 1,262,600 are Belarusians (85%), 128,700 (8.6%) are Russians, 57,100 (3.8%) are Ukrainians, and 27,100 (1.8%) are Poles. 53.7% of the population speak Belarusian and 42.6% speak Russian as their native language.

Brest is the province with the highest birth rate in all of Belarus. As of 2008, the birth rate was 12.0 per 1000 and death rate was 13.4 per 1000.

Administrative territorial entities
The region was formed in 1939 after reunification of Western Belarus and the Byelorussian SSR. Today it comprises 16 districts (rajons), 225 selsoviets, 20 cities, 5 city municipalities, 9 urban-type settlements, and 2178 villages.

Districts of Brest Region
The sixteen raions (districts) of the Brest Region are:

Tourism
There are about 70 travel agencies in Brest Region, most of them provide both agent and operator activities. Main tourist attractions in the region are Belovezhskaya Puscha and Brest Fortress.