Geographical position

The Petrikov region is situated in the west of Gomel oblast within the limits of Pripiat Polesie at a height of 136 meters above sea level. It borders on Zhitkovichi, Liuban, Lelchitsy, Oktiabrskiy, Kalinkovichi and Mozyr regions.

The total area is 2,8 thousand square kilometers. Birchen, coniferous and oak forests cover 56 per cent of the territory. The region stretches for 62 kilometers from north to south and for 65 kilometers from west to east.

The region numbers 126 settlements, one settlement and 16 rural councils.

The population is 37,9 thousand people. The rural population makes 14,5 thousand, the urban — 23,4 thousand people. Petrikov is the region’s center with the total population of 10,7 thousand people /2004/. The average density makes 13,4 people per 1 square kilometer.

The ethnic pattern is as following: Belarusians – 92.8 per cent, Russians – 4.3 per cent, Ukrainians – 1.6 per cent, Poles – 0.3 per cent, Gypsies – 0.2 per cent and Jews – 0.01 per cent.

Petrikov is located at the left bank of the river Pripiat some 190 kilometers from the oblast center of Gomel, 290 kilometers – from the capital of Belarus – Minsk and 12 kilometers – from the railway station Muliarovka, a part of the Brest-Gomel line. The town has a ferry passage and roadways that run to Gomel, Brest and Mozyr.

Among mineral resources there are peat, rock and potassium salt, brown coal and a mineral spring.

The region’s territory is waterlogged plain with sand-hills along the ricers. Some 95 per cent of the territory is at a height of 120-140 meters above sea level and 4 per cent – over 140 meters.

The climate is continental.