Demographics of Estonia - Ethnic Groups

Ethnic Groups

See also: Estonian Swedes, Baltic Germans, Baltic Russians, Russians in Estonia, Armenians in Estonia, Võros, and Setos

Today, Estonia is an ethnically fairly diverse country, ranking 97th out of 239 countries and territories in 2001 study by Kok Kheng Yeoh. In 2008, thirteen of Estonia's fifteen counties were over 80% ethnic Estonian. The counties with the highest percentage Estonians are Hiiu County (98.4%) and Saare County (98.3%). However, in Harju County (which includes the national capital, Tallinn) and Ida-Viru County, ethnic Estonians make up only 59.6% (55.0% in Tallinn) and 19.7% of the population, respectively. In those two counties, Russians account for 32.4% (36.4% in Tallinn) and 71.2% of the population, respectively. In the nation as a whole, Russians make up 25.6% of the total population.

After gaining independence following World War I a population census was held in 1922 and 1934. At that time Estonians were still the predominant ethnic group, while all others constituted 12% of the population of Estonia.

Major Jewish communities were present in Estonia between 1918 and 1940 in Tallinn, Pärnu, Kilingi-Nõmme, Narva, Tartu, Valga, and Võru.

Population of Estonia according to ethnic group 1922–2011

Ethnic group	census 19221		census 19341		census 19592		census 19703		census 19794		census 19895		census 2000		census 20116
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Estonians	969,976	87.6	992,520	88.1	892,653	74.6	925,157	68.2	947,812	64.7	963,281	61.5	930,219	67.9	889,770	68.7
Russians	91,109	8.2	92,656	8.2	240,227	20.1	334,620	24.7	408,778	27.9	474,834	30.3	351,178	25.6	321,198	24.8
Ukrainians	—		92	0.0	15,769	1.3	28,086	2.1	36,044	2.5	48,271	3.1	29,012	2.1	22,302	1.7
Belarusians	—		—		10,930	0.9	18,732	1.4	23,461	1.6	27,711	1.8	17,241	1.3	12,419	1.0
Finns	401	0.0	1,088	0.1	16,699	1.4	18,537	1.4	17,753	1.2	16,622	1.1	11,837	0.9	7,423	0.6
Tatars	—		166	0.0	1,534	0.1	2,204	0.2	3,195	0.2	4,058	0.3	2,582	0.2	1,945	0.2
Latvians	1,966	0.2	5,435	0.5	2,888	0.2	3,286	0.2	3,963	0.3	3,135	0.2	2,330	0.2	1,716	0.1
Poles	969	0.1	1,608	0.1	2,256	0.2	2,651	0.2	2,897	0.2	3,008	0.2	2,193	0.2	1,622	0.1
Jews	4,566	0.4	4,434	0.4	5,433	0.5	5,282	0.4	4,954	0.3	4,613	0.3	2,145	0.2	1,927	0.2
Lithuanians	436	0.0	253	0.0	1,616	0.1	2,356	0.2	2,379	0.2	2,568	0.2	2,116	0.2	1,682	0.1
Germans	18,319	1.7	16,346	1.5	670	0.1	7,850	0.6	3,944	0.3	3,466	0.2	1,870	0.1	1,490	0.1
Swedes	7,850	0.7	7,641	0.7	—		435	0.0	254	0.0	297	0.0	—		375	0.0
Others	11,467	1.0	4,266	0.4	6,116	0.5	6,883	0.5	9,042	0.6	13,798	0.9	17,0297	1.2	30,367	2.4
Total	1,107,059		1,126,413		1,196,791		1,356,079		1,464,476		1,565,662		1,370,052		1,294,236

As a result of the aforementioned Soviet policies, the share of ethnic Estonians in the population resident within currently defined boundaries of Estonia dropped to 61.5% in 1989, compared to 88% in 1934. But in the decade following the reconstitution of independence, large scale emigration by ethnic Russians, as well as ethnic groups of other former Soviet countries, and the removal of the Russian military bases in 1994 caused the proportion of ethnic Estonians in Estonia to increase from 61.5% in 1989 to 68.7% in 2008. In the same period the proportion of ethnic Russians decreased from 30.0% to 25.6%, the proportion of ethnic Ukrainians decreased from 3.1% to 2.1%, and the proportion of ethnic Belarusians decreased from 1.8% to 1.2%.

As of 2008, the largest ethnic groups in Estonia are Estonians (68.7%), Russians (25.6%), Ukrainians (2.1%), Belarusians (1.2%), and Finns (0.8%). These five groups made up 98.4% of Estonia's population.