Population: 1.33 million
Capital: Tallinn
Major language: Estonian
Major religion: Christianity (Lutheran)
Life expectancy: 66 years (men), 77 years (women)
Monetary unit: 1 kroon = 100 sents
Main exports: Machinery and equipment, wood and paper, textiles, food products, furniture
Average annual income: $7,080
Internet domain: .ee
International dialing code: +372
About Estonia
The Republic of Estonia is located in the North East of Europe (it is the most Northerly of the three Baltic States), and South of the Gulf of Finland, which separates the country from Scandinavia. It shares a border with Latvia (South) and Russia (East), and has 3,794 km of coastline (North and West) and 1,520 islands in the Baltic Sea. The country is largely covered in forest and marsh with 1,400, predominantly small, lakes. It is one of the smallest countries in Europe (148th in the world), although it is larger than both Belgium and the Netherlands. Estonia's population is a little over 1.3 million.
Estonians have occupied their country since the mid-3rd millennium BC, when Finno-Ugric tribes arrived from the East and mixed with forerunners of the Baltic people. The oldest written record of Estonia however didn't appear until 1154, when the Arabian cartographer Al Idrisi marked Tallinn on his world map. The country has been subjected to foreign rule for most of the last millennium passing through the hands of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian rule, before first attaining its independence in 1918. This independence however, was short-lived as Estonia was forcibly incorporated into the USSR in 1940 and only regained it's own sovereignty in 1991 with the help of the 'Singing Revolution' - during which masses of Estonians gathered night after night, for four years, to sing forbidden national songs in repudiation of Soviet policies and rule.
Since 1991 Estonia has developed one of the most successful economies out of the ex-Soviet states, partly because of its willingness to embrace new and modern technologies (Estonia is the most 'on-line' country in the world!), and partly because of it's ability to make wholesale changes in economic policy with ease. In regard to this former Estonian President Lennart Meri noted the following: “Estonia’s like an Eskimo’s kayak and can turn on the spot. Bigger countries are like a supertanker that needs 16 nautical miles.” Estonia's economy has also benefited greatly from developments in and investment from Finland, Sweden, and Germany, its three major trading partners. Estonia is a member of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) and joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.