Society

The northernmost of the three Baltic States, Estonia is located in  Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland, between Latvia and Russia. 

After centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian rule, Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcibly incorporated into the USSR in 1940, it regained its freedom in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The early years of independence brought hardship, but Estonia is recovering. Despite the rapid changes since it regained its independence in 1991, there’s still a lot of tradition, including a language packed with deep ‘oo’s and ‘uu’s and thriving folk shindigs.

For the visitor, Estonia offers some nice natural parks, a few old towns, some remains from the Middle Ages and a lot of Islands just off the coast.

Driving into Tallinn from its tiny airport is like hurtling back through time. The outer ring of Estonia’s capital is grim Soviet high-rises. The inner ring is 19th-century buildings of wood. The center is stone—one of the great medieval walled cities of Europe.

Full country name: Republic of Estonia
Area: 45,226 sq km
Population: 1.41 million
Capital City: Tallinn
People: Estonian (68%), Russian (26%), Ukrainian (2.1%)
Language: Estonian
Religion: 23% Christian (Lutheranism and Orthodoxy)
Government: parliamentary republic

Education

Estonian-language schools have twelve years of education (nine in elementary schools and three in secondary schools). Russian-language education lasts eleven years. Education compulsory to ninth grade. In 1993 some 215,000 elementary and secondary school students in 724 schools. About 142,000 students enrolled in Estonian-language schools and 70,000 in Russian-language schools. Individual schools offered instruction in other languages as well. Seventy-seven vocational schools, in which about 26,000 students enrolled. Literacy nearly universal. According to 1989 census results, 99.7 percent of adult population literate.

Health and Welfare

In 1992 thirty-two doctors and ninety-two hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants, but shortage of auxiliary staff. Retirement pensions very low (about EKR260 per month); other welfare benefits include financial support for invalids, low-income families, and families having three or more children.

Labor Force

785,500 (August 1994); industry 33 percent, agriculture 12 percent, education and culture 10 percent, construction 10 percent. Services sector, accounting for 44.7 percent of employment, was the most developed in former Soviet Union and is expected to expand.

Human Rights

The 2009 US Human Rights Report of Estonia states that:

With a population of 1.34 million, Estonia is a multiparty constitutional parliamentary democracy with a unicameral parliament, a prime minister as head of government, and a president as head of state. Parliamentary elections held in 2007 were generally free and fair. Civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.

Problems were reported in some areas. There were allegations that police used excessive force during the arrest of suspects; authorities investigated and brought charges against alleged offenders. Conditions in detention centers generally remained poor. Lengthy pretrial detention continued to be a problem. Domestic violence, inequality of women’s salaries, child abuse, and trafficking of women were also reported.