According to a 1998 law of the Republic of Belarus, there ate three categories of urban-type settlements in Belarus:

• Urban settlements (гарадскія пасёлкі): with population over 2,000, industrial enterprises and developed residential infrastructure
• Resort settlements (курортныя пасёлкі, resort town
  Resort town
  A resort town, sometimes called a resort city or resort destination, is a town or area where tourism or vacationing is a primary component of the local culture and economy...
  
  s): with population of at least 2,000, sanatoriums, resorts or other health recuperation establishments, and developed residential infrastructure
• Worker settlements (рабочыя пасёлкі): with population at least 500, servicing industrial enterprises, construction sites, railroad stations, electric stations, or other industrial objects.

The notion of urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...

 is inherited from the times of Belarusian SSR within the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

As of August 1, 2008. there were 87 urban settlements, 6 worker settlements and 1 resort settlement (Narach

Narach (town)

Narach is a resort town in Myadzel Raion, Minsk Voblast, Belarus, by the Lake Narach.It was established in 1964 in place of the former village Kupa....

).

Before the Soviet times, many modern urban settlements in Belarus were classified as miastechka/miasteczko ("market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

").