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“In 1994, the life expectancy of Estonian residents was 66.5 years, whereas by 2024 it had increased by 13 years and reached 79.5 years. In both Latvia and Lithuania, life expectancy has increased by about nine years in the same 30-year period. Life expectancy is currently 77.6 years in Lithuania and 75.6 years in Latvia,” explained Eveli Voolens, the social statistics team lead at Statistics Estonia. She added that Latvia has one of the lowest life expectancies in Europe. On the other hand, in Finland, life expectancy was already 76.7 years in 1994 and has now increased by 4.9 years to 81.6

Statistics Estonia, commissioned by the Education and Youth Board, analysed for the fifth time the economic contribution of working international students and international graduates. Although the number of international degree students in Estonia was down from the previous years, international students paid 16.6 million euros in income and social tax in the academic year 2022/23, and graduates from the year before contributed 6.9 million euros. For students, this is 2.5 million euros more than in the previous academic year, while for graduates it is 1.5 million euros less.

During the population and housing census, information on the highest level of education attained by inhabitants of Estonia was also gathered and data were compared with that of other countries. Estonia has seen an increase in the proportion of people with higher education, while the share of persons with basic education has decreased. Estonian women are still among the most highly educated in Europe, and overall Estonia ranks 7th in terms of the share of people with higher education.

Data from the 2021 census show that the share of people with higher education in Estonia is increasing and the share of people with basic education is decreasing. A fifth of the inhabitants in Estonia have a master's degree, and Tartu and Viimsi stand out for their particularly high concentration of highly educated people.

During the population and housing census, information on the highest level of education attained by inhabitants of Estonia was also gathered. Collected data revealed that the educational attainment of the population continues to rise. The level of education of foreigners living in here has also increased significantly. Below we will take a closer look at the educational attainment of the native Estonian- and Russian-speaking population as well as that of other mother tongue speakers and see how it has changed since the previous censuses.

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2023, life expectancy at birth was 79 years in Estonia. This is the highest result ever and puts Estonia ahead of the other Baltic countries. At the same time, there was a slight decrease in healthy life years.

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2019, the expenditures on research and development (R&D) in Estonia amounted to 453 million euros, which is 24% more than in 2018. The share of R&D expenditures in the gross domestic product was 1.61%, making it the highest share in the last five years.