Data from Statistics Estonia show that the most popular online services used by the population in Estonia are banking and email. Compared with 2023, the number of social media users has increased – up by 5.7% in 2024.
86% of Estonian people are willing to review and update their personal information in the population register and in the register of buildings before the population census begins at the end of this year. Still, only 16% of the population, on average, have logged into these registers over the last year, as revealed by the survey carried out by Kantar Emor.
While at the beginning of the new century it was mainly the inhabitants of Estonia who eagerly moved elsewhere in Europe, today more and more citizens of other European Union countries are settling in Estonia. Kristjan Erik Loik, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, takes a look at who has arrived here in the last 20 years.
Monday, 28 February, marked the end of the second stage of the Population and Housing Census where data were collected from people living at the addresses included in the mandatory sample. The survey component of the census has ended, but data collection from registers continues until July, to ensure that all residents of Estonia are counted.
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.
Latvia conducted a census based entirely on register data on the first day of this year, and it can be considered as a complete success. In addition to various databases, a large amount of information from private companies was used to specify and compare information, for example, on housing. The first most important result of the census: last year, Latvia had the lowest population growth in a hundred years.
In the coming months, the population census continues with the collection and analysis of register data. The first dataset on population composition will be published at the beginning of June.
At the end of the year, on 28 December, the Population and Housing Census, conducted every ten years, starts in Estonia. Everyone living in Estonia is invited to complete an online questionnaire for the census by 22 January 2022. In February, census takers will call or visit the people for whom filling in the questionnaire is mandatory.
According to Statistics Estonia, in 2021, life expectancy at birth was 77.2 years in Estonia. Male life expectancy was 72.8 years and female life expectancy was 81.4 years. Life expectancy has decreased for both men and women. Men can expect to live disability-free for 54.9 years and women for 58 years.