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Official name: Republic of Estonia
National Day: Independence Day, February 24. Estonia declared its independence on this day in 1918.
Estonia became a NATO member state on 29 March 2004
Estonia is a European Union member state from 1 May 2004
Geography
Area: 45 227 square km.
Borders: Total length - 1445.4 km, with a sea border of 768.6 km and a land border of 676.8 km.
Distances from Tallinn to:
- Helsinki 85 km;
- Riga 307 km;
- St. Petersburg 395 km;
- Stockholm 405 km.
Temperature range (average daily): -7.6°C in January 2003 and +19.9°C in July 2003
Population
Total population: 1.351 million (as of 1.01.2004)
Largest ethnic groups:
- Estonians - 68%
- Russians - 26%
- Ukrainians - 2%
- Belarussians - 1%
- Finns - 1%
Main Cities
The capital of Estonia is Tallinn (2003, population 397.2 thousand or 29.3% of total population).
Other large cities and population (thousands):
- Tartu - 101.2
- Narva - 67.8
- Kohtla-Järve - 46.8
- Pärnu - 44.8
Language
The official language in Estonia is Estonian, which belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is closely related to Finnish. Along with Finnish, English, Russian and German are also widely spoken and understood.
Religion
Since the Reformation movement in the 16th century, the Lutheran church has played the leading role in Estonia. Other larger active confessions are: Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic.
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