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Krista Vaikmets, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that wage growth was stable at 5 to 6%. “Year on year, wages have increased in all counties, with the greatest increase registered in Rapla and Järva counties where the rise in gross wages and salaries was about 7%. The increase in average monthly wages was the smallest in Viljandi and Tartu counties – about 5%,” said Vaikmets. In the first quarter, the average monthly gross wages and salaries were again the highest in Harju county (2,405 euros), rising by 6.3% year on year, and in Tartu county (2,129 euros), growing by 5.3% year on

According to Statistics Estonia, in November, the consumer price index rose by 0.9% compared with October and by 21.3% compared with November 2021. Goods were 20.1% and services 23.5% more expensive than in November last year.

Today, on 25 February, the Statistical Council held a meeting where they reviewed last year’s results and commended the production of official statistics, but the Council also acknowledged that the statistical system continues to be underfunded. The Council was briefed on the methodology approved by Statistics Estonia for the Population and Housing Census: namely, a register-based census, which is in accordance with EU regulations, combined with a sample survey to collect data on characteristics not covered by registers.

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2023, the consumer price index increased by 9.2% compared with the average of 2022. Price changes related to food and non-alcoholic beverages had the biggest impact on the consumer price index in 2023.

Robert Müürsepp, the national accounts team lead at Statistics Estonia, said that there was modest economic growth in the second quarter of 2025. The last time that the GDP grew was in the second quarter of last year. “About half of economic activities contributed positively to the GDP, with the biggest contribution coming from the energy sector where value added grew by 43%. In real estate activities, value added increased by 5.4%. The biggest negative contributors were construction, with a 9.3% decline in value added, and transportation and storage, where value added decreased by 11%,” noted

According to the preliminary data of Statistics Estonia, in 2022, the total production value of Estonian construction enterprises in Estonia and abroad decreased by 1% compared with a year earlier.

“In the third quarter, overall labour market indicators improved compared with both the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year,” stated Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia. She added that there were a total of 54,200 unemployed persons in the third quarter, which is 5,000 fewer than in the second quarter and 2,100 fewer than in the third quarter of last year. The unemployment rate (7.1%), i.e. the share of the unemployed in the labour force, was 0.3 percentage points lower in the third quarter than in the same quarter last year (7.4%) and 0.7 percentage points

Census data show that an estimated 76% of Estonia’s population speak a foreign language. While 10 years ago the most widely spoken foreign language in Estonia was Russian, today it is English. Estonian is spoken by 84% of the population: 67% speak it as a mother tongue and 17% as a foreign language.

It is estimated that 17% of the native Estonian-speaking population speak a dialect. This is 2 percentage points more than in the previous census. The share of dialect speakers has increased the most in Hiiu and Saare counties, but it has not decreased in any county. 10% of dialect speakers speak more than one dialect.