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Estonia is a country in the north eastern Europe. There is a mainland area of Estonia but there are also over 2,000 islands in the Baltic Sea, which make up the country. Most of the islands are uninhabited.

Estonia is bordered by the Baltic Sea.

The land is fairly flat with marshy lowlands in the north and low hills in the south.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Estonia, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 59 00N
Longitude - 26 00E

The capital of Estonia is Tallinn.

Estonia is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Estonia is the euro. Estonia is a member of the European Union, having joined in 2004.

Estonian is the official language.

Check the weather in Tallinn now.

This is the time in Tallinn now

The Estonian flag is 3 equal horizontal stripes of blue, black and white. Some think that the blue represents the sea, sky and lakes, the black is the soil while the white is the colour of snow.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Estonian National Anthem called My Native Land, My Pride and Joy. It was re-adopted in 1990. It shares a melody with the Finnish National Anthem. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

My fatherland, my joy and happiness,
How beautiful you are!
I shall not find such ever
In this huge wide world
Which would be so dear to me
As you, my fatherland!

You have given me birth
And raised me up;
I shall thank you always
And remain faithful to you ’til death,
To me most beloved are you,
My precious fatherland!

May God watch over you,
My precious fatherland!
Let Him be your defender
And provide bountiful blessings
For whatever you undertake,
My precious fatherland!

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The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Estonia is 42,388 sq kms which is the 28th largest in Europe.

Estonia has lakes, rivers and canals which total 2,840 sq kms.

Estonia has boundaries with 2 countries

• Latvia 333 kms
• Russia 324 kms

Estonia has a coastline of 3,794 kms which is the 9th longest in Europe.

The highest point in Estonia is Suur Munamagi at 318 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Estonia is 1.26 million people, making it the 35th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 670,000 are females and 590,000 are males.

A person from Estonia is called an Estonian.

To be a citizen of Estonia, one of your parents must be a citizen of Estonia. It is not sufficient to be born in Estonia. You have to live in Estonia for 5 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Estonia, by population are:-

• Tallinn 394,024 people
• Tartu 101,092
• Narva 66,980
• Kohtla-Jarve 46,060
• Parnu 44,192

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



67.5% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Estonia is 10.3 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Estonia is 12.5 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 3.8 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 3.7 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 45.8 and for males is 39.0. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 26.4.

The elderly dependency ratio is 28.9. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 3.5. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Estonia spends 6.4% of its total income on health care.

There are 3.24 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 5.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

21.2% of the population are estimated as obese.

100.0% of the urban population and 99.0% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

97.5% of the urban population and 96.6% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Estonia releases 5.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 36th highest in Europe.

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Estonia spends 4.8% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 7 in Estonia. Compulsory education is for nine years until age 17 and secondary education can continue to age 19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in the first week of September and finishes in the middle of June. There is usually a 2 week break at Christmas, 1 week at Easter, and a one week break in the middle of each of the first two terms.

99.8% of females and males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

13.4% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 10.6% are unemployed while with males 15.8% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Estonia is 651,200.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

6.5% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 13 paved airports in Estonia, which is the 28th highest number in Europe.


There are 1,196 kilometres of railways in Estonia, which is the 30th longest in Europe.


There are 10,427 kilometres of roads in Estonia, which means Estonia is in 31st place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 4 major national newspapers in Estonia.

There are 1.90 million mobile phone users.

31% of the people have a fixed landline.



1.1 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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