There are people of 224 different ethnic nationalities living in Estonia

Maali Käbin, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that information about ethnic nationality is obtained from various state registers and databases. “The main source is the population register. If this register does not specify the ethnic nationality, we rely on other national databases, such as information provided when applying for identity documents,” explained Käbin.

The number of Estonians has been stable, the number of Ukrainians has increased

In the period 2018–2026, the number of Estonians has been quite stable. At the same time, the number of Russians has decreased, and the number of Ukrainians has increased. 

Estonians hold the biggest share in every age group, although the share of Russians and other ethnic nationalities is as much as 40% in the age group 65–79. Estonians account for more 70% of the population among children and youngsters.

“Comparing the age groups, we can see that the largest number of Estonians are aged 35–39. The share of the population aged under 20 is greater among Estonians than among Russians. The number of Russians is the largest in the age group 65–74,” added Käbin.

The share of Estonians in the population of counties has remained more or less stable over the last five years. This share has increased a little in Ida-Viru county (from 18.5% in 2022 to 20.9% in 2026; the increase has been 9.2%). The share of Estonians has fallen slightly in Jõgeva county (from 90.9% to 89.4%; the decrease has been 6.4%).

After Estonians and Russians, the third largest ethnic nationality in Estonia is Ukrainians. Their number was 75,250 as at 1 January 2026, which means 5.5% of the total population. 

The share of Ukrainians varies by county

The share of Ukrainians varies regionally – it is 7.4% of the permanent population in Harju county but about 2% in Saare, Põlva and Võru counties and less than 1% in Hiiu county. 

“The statistics cover all Ukrainians living in Estonia, not only the people who have arrived as refugees due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainians were one of the larger ethnic nationality groups in Estonia already before the war,” noted Käbin.

The number of Ukrainians started to rise in 2022 and has grown significantly during the war between Russia and Ukraine – there were 27,826 Ukrainians in Estonia at the start of 2022, while their number now is three times higher. 53% of the Ukrainians living in Estonia are female and 47% are male. 

The other ethnic nationalities with a considerable population in Estonia are Belarusians (11,477), Finns (8,059) and Latvians (4,272). All the remaining ethnic nationalities have fewer than 4,000 representatives in Estonia. The number of residents whose ethnic nationality is unknown has decreased gradually. As at 1 January 2026, there were 5,398 residents with unknown ethnic nationality (0.4%). 

The share of other ethnic nationalities in the population has not changed as much as the share of Ukrainians. In 2018–2026, the number of Latvians living in Estonia increased by 1,794. In the same period, there was also an increase in the number of Germans (up by 805), Azerbaijanis (up by 879) and Turks (up by 1,069). The number of Indians has also grown – it was 1,431 in 2023 and 1,836 at the start of this year.

People may change their specified ethnic nationality

In addition to the larger ethnic groups, there are several smaller ethnic nationalities whose population in Estonia has increased in recent years. For some, the increase in percentage terms may be considerable, but it might mean just a few more individuals in reality.

It should also be noted that people are free to change their specified ethnic nationality in the population register or when filling in official applications. For example, in the last three years, 23,686 people have changed their ethnic nationality from Russian to another ethnic nationality.

There are citizens of 159 countries living in Estonia, and 262 languages are spoken as the mother tongue

As at 1 January 2026, there were citizens of 159 countries among the permanent residents of Estonia. 82.2% of the population had Estonian citizenship, 5.5% had Russian citizenship and 4.6% had Ukrainian citizenship. 2.9% of residents had the citizenship of other countries, and 4.3% had undetermined citizenship. Most of the people without citizenship are long-term residents of Estonia who do not hold the citizenship of any country. 

At the start of 2026, the population of Estonia included native speakers of 262 different languages. 77 of these languages had only one or two speakers residing in Estonia. Estonian is the mother tongue for 65.4% of the population (890,104 people). 26.9% are native speakers of Russian (366,251 people) and 4.1% are native speakers of Ukrainian (55,812 people). The remaining languages represented less than 1% of the mother tongues. Over 5,000 people were native speakers of English. Finnish was the mother tongue of nearly 4,000 residents. 

Käbin said that the mother tongue and ethnic nationality do not always match. “Ethnic nationality shows a person’s ethnic affinity, while mother tongue is the language that the person considers their native language. This refers to cases, for example, where the ethnic identity is related to the country, but there are several different languages spoken in this country,” explained Käbin.

When using Statistics Estonia’s data and graphs, please indicate the source.

For further information:

Annaliisa Köss
Media Relations Partner
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 5696 6484
press [at] stat.ee

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