75 Facts About Estonia

Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe.

The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last "pagan" civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal-sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century.

Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded and occupied, first by Stalinist Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit .

Estonia is a developed country, with a high-income advanced economy; ranking very high in the Human Development Index.

The sovereign state of Estonia is a democratic Unitary parliamentary republic, administratively subdivided into 15 maakond .

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Estonia has consistently ranked highly in international rankings for quality of life, education, press freedom, digitalisation of public services and the prevalence of technology companies.

Name Estonia has been connected to Aesti, a people first mentioned by Roman historian Tacitus around 98 AD.

The oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Parnu, near the town of Sindi, in southwest Estonia.

The coastal areas of Northern and Western Estonia had close overseas contacts with Scandinavia and Finland, while inland Southern Estonia had more contacts with Balts and Pskov.

Estonia has a number of graves from the Viking Age, both individual and collective, with weapons and jewellery including types found commonly throughout Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

Northern Estonia became the Danish Duchy of Estonia, while the rest was divided between the Sword Brothers and prince-bishoprics of Dorpat and Osel–Wiek.

Reval, the capital of Danish Estonia founded on the site of Lindanise, adopted the Lubeck law and received full town rights in 1248.

The majority of Livonia accepted Polish rule, while Reval and the nobles of Northern Estonia swore loyalty to the Swedish king, and the Bishop of Osel-Wiek sold his lands to the Danish king.

In June 1919, Estonia defeated the German Landeswehr which had attempted to dominate Latvia, restoring power to the government of Karlis Ulmanis there.

In 1939, Estonia declared neutrality, but this proved futile in World War II.

Only a puppet collaborationist administration was established, and occupied Estonia was merged into Reichskommissariat Ostland, with its economy being fully subjugated to German military needs.

Introduction of perestroika by the central government of the Soviet Union in 1987 made open political activity possible again in Estonia, which triggered an independence restoration process later known as Laulev revolutsioon .

Estonia has been a member of the WTO since 13 November 1999.

On 1 January 2011, Estonia joined the eurozone and adopted the euro, the single currency of EU.

Phytogeographically, Estonia is shared between the Central European and Eastern European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom.

Geopolitically, Estonia is often considered to be one of the three Baltic countries or "Baltic states" — an unofficial geopolitical grouping which includes Latvia and Lithuania.

Estonia is situated in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate.

Large mammals present in Estonia include the grey wolf, lynx, brown bear, red fox, badger, wild boar, moose, red deer, roe deer, beaver, otter, grey seal, and ringed seal.

Over 300 bird species have been found in Estonia, including the white-tailed eagle, lesser spotted eagle, golden eagle, western capercaillie, black and white stork, numerous species of owls, waders, geese and many others.

Approximately half of Estonia's territory is covered with forests, but in fact, only one to two per cent of it can be considered truly natural old-growth forests – the rest is young and managed.

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European Commission recently initiated infringement proceedings against Estonia for failing to properly implement the environmental impact assessment requirements laid down in EU law when permitting logging at Natura 2000 sites.

Government of Estonia is formed by the Prime Minister of Estonia at recommendation of the President, and approved by the Riigikogu.

Estonia has been ruled by coalition governments because no party has been able to obtain an absolute majority in the parliament.

Constitution of Estonia provides possibility for direct democracy through referendum, although since adoption of the constitution in 1992 the only referendum has been the referendum on European Union membership in 2003.

Estonia has pursued the development of the e-government, with 99 percent of the public services being available on the web 24 hours a day.

In 2005 Estonia became the first country in the world to introduce nationwide binding Internet voting in local elections of 2005.

Estonia has a civil law legal system based on the Germanic legal model.

Estonia was a member of the League of Nations from 22 September 1921, and became a member of the United Nations on 17 September 1991.

Since restoration of independence Estonia has pursued close relations with the Western countries, and has been member of NATO since 29 March 2004, as well as the European Union since 1 May 2004.

Estonia held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2017.

Since the early 1990s, Estonia has been involved in active trilateral Baltic states co-operation with Latvia and Lithuania, and Nordic-Baltic co-operation with the Nordic countries.

Estonia is a member of the interparliamentary Baltic Assembly, the intergovernmental Baltic Council of Ministers and the Council of the Baltic Sea States.

Estonia has built close relationship with the Nordic countries, especially Finland and Sweden, and is a member of Nordic-Baltic Eight uniting Nordic and Baltic countries.

Estonia has very actively supported Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, providing highest support relative to its gross domestic product.

Estonia co-operates with Latvia and Lithuania in several trilateral Baltic defence co-operation initiatives.

In European Union Estonia participates in Nordic Battlegroup and Permanent Structured Cooperation.

Since 1995 Estonia has participated in numerous international security and peacekeeping missions, including: Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Kosovo, and Mali.

Estonia is a unitary country with a single-tier local government system.

Estonia's economy continues to benefit from a transparent government and policies that sustain a high level of economic freedom, ranking 6th globally and 2nd in Europe.

Estonia has the 13th lowest business bribery risk in the world, according to TRACE Matrix.

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Estonia is a developed country with an advanced, high-income economy that was among the fastest-growing in the EU since its entry in 2004.

One of the world's most digitally-advanced societies, in 2005 Estonia became the first state to hold elections over the Internet, and in 2014, the first state to provide e-residency.

Since re-establishing independence, Estonia has styled itself as the gateway between East and West and aggressively pursued economic reform and integration with the West.

In 1999, Estonia experienced its worst year economically since it regained independence in 1991, largely because of the impact of the 1998 Russian financial crisis.

Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport in Tallinn is the largest airport in Estonia and serves as a hub for the national airline Nordica, as well as the secondary hub for AirBaltic and LOT Polish Airlines.

Since 2008, public debate has discussed whether Estonia should build a nuclear power plant to secure energy production after closure of old units in the Narva Power Plants, if they are not reconstructed by 2016.

Estonia has a strong information technology sector, partly owing to the Tiigrihupe project undertaken in the mid-1990s, and has been mentioned as the most "wired" and advanced country in Europe in the terms of e-Government of Estonia.

Skype was written by Estonia-based developers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn, who had originally developed Kazaa.

Estonia has had a market economy since the end of the 1990s and one of the highest per capita income levels in Eastern Europe.

In recent years the number of Swedish residents in Estonia has risen again, numbering in 2008 almost 500 people, owing to the property reforms at the beginning of the 1990s.

In 2004, the Ingrian Finnish minority in Estonia elected a cultural council and was granted cultural autonomy.

Estonia has accepted quota refugees under the migrant plan agreed upon by EU member states in 2015.

Estonia was the first post-Soviet republic to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples, with a law approved in October 2014.

Estonia has a diverse religious history, but in recent years it has become increasingly secular, with either a plurality or a majority of the population declaring themselves nonreligious in recent censuses, followed by those who identify as religiously "undeclared".

Estonia was Christianised by the Catholic Teutonic Knights in the 13th century.

From 1918 to 1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated.

Estonia started connecting all its schools to the internet very early.

Academic higher education in Estonia is divided into three levels: bachelor's, master's, and doctoral studies.

Estonia has a moderate number of public and private universities.

Estonia was ranked 21th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021.

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Some best-known scientists related to Estonia include astronomers Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, Ernst Opik and Jaan Einasto, biologist Karl Ernst von Baer, Jakob von Uexkull, chemists Wilhelm Ostwald and Carl Schmidt, economist Ragnar Nurkse, mathematician Edgar Krahn, medical researchers Ludvig Puusepp and Nikolay Pirogov, physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck, political scientist Rein Taagepera, psychologist Endel Tulving and Risto Naatanen, semiotician Juri Lotman.

Estonia's provided music for the 2010 Disney film Alice in Wonderland and the television series Smallville in the United States of America.

Estonia won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 with the song "Everybody" performed by Tanel Padar and Dave Benton.

Cinema of Estonia started in 1908 with the production of a newsreel about Swedish King Gustav V's visit to Tallinn.

Estonia has been internationally recognised for its high rate of press freedom, having been ranked 3rd in the 2012 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

Architectural history of Estonia mainly reflects its contemporary development in northern Europe.

Estonia first competed as an independent nation at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

Estonia has won most of its medals in athletics, weightlifting, wrestling, and cross-country skiing.

Estonia has been one of the most successful nations at the Olympics in terms of medals won per capita.

Estonia has many indoor and outdoor facilities dedicated to various sports branches.