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This is the sixth time that Statistics Estonia has been commissioned by the Education and Youth Board to analyse the economic contribution of working international students and international graduates who stay in Estonia and work here. In the academic year 2023/2024, there were 4,336 international students in Estonia and 1,960 of them worked here as well. The number of working international students has decreased, but they are more often in long-term employment Kadri Rootalu, data scientist at Statistics Estonia and the author of the report, said that, compared to the preceding academic year

“In 2025, average gross hourly wages were 13 euros for men and 11.4 euros for women, meaning that women’s wages were 12.2% lower. This means that the gender pay gap in Estonia was the narrowest ever,” said Krista Vaikmets, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia. She added that the gender pay gap has decreased by 10.7 percentage points in the last 15 years. Wage inequality is the greatest in financial and insurance activities Looking at individual economic activities, the indicators vary. “In 2025, the gender pay gap was the biggest in financial and insurance activities (23.6%), wholesale and

Jane Leppmets, analyst at Statistics Estonia, noted that, compared with 2024, exports of services to European Union countries increased by 4% in the first quarter of this year, while imports from these countries grew by 8%. Exports of services to non-EU countries rose by 6% and imports from these countries increased by 18%. “The latter was mainly due to higher imports of services from Cyprus, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the first quarter, the largest import items were other business services from Cyprus, transport services from the United Kingdom, and telecommunications

Krista Vaikmets, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that wage growth slowed down in 2025. “Last year, wages and salaries did not grow as fast as in previous years, but monthly gross wages still increased in all counties. The biggest increase was registered in Valga, Põlva and Rapla counties where gross wages were up by more than 6.5% last year,” she said. Vaikmets added that, in 2025, the average monthly gross wages and salaries were the highest in Harju county (2,336 euros), rising by 5.3% year on year, and in Tartu county (2,112 euros), growing by 5.9% year on year. “Looking at

Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that, in the first quarter, the labour market showed no signs of major changes in any direction. “There were 52,200 unemployed people in the first quarter, up by 5,100 from the fourth quarter of last year. This number is still significantly lower than in the first quarter of last year, when the number of unemployed people was very high,” noted Vassiljeva. The unemployment rate is the share of the unemployed in the labour force. The unemployment rate was 7.1% in the first quarter, which is 0.7 percentage points higher than in the last quarter

According to Statistics Estonia, in the second quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate was 7.6%, the employment rate was 69.7%, and the labour force participation rate was 75.4%.

Robert Müürsepp, the national accounts team lead at Statistics Estonia, said that the GDP, which had shown growth in the fourth quarter last year, was again down a little in the first quarter this year. “A month ago, we published a model-based flash estimate which suggested that the economy might be slightly improving. However, the flash estimate underestimated some irregular factors in the fourth quarter. Vehicle sales were exceptionally high in the fourth quarter in anticipation of the introduction of the motor vehicle tax from 2025. But the model could not fully foresee the significant

According to Statistics Estonia, in the third quarter of 2023, the unemployment rate was 7.3%, the labour force participation rate 74.5%, and the employment rate 69.1%.

According to Statistics Estonia, in the first quarter of 2024, the gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 2.4% compared with the same period of 2023. The GDP at current prices amounted to 8.9 billion euros.