Definitions

Age
Area of the dwelling
Branch of economic activity
Building
Child in family nucleus → Family nucleus
Child in the household
Citizenship
Cohabitant
Comfort characteristics
Command of foreign languages
Composition of household
Conscript
Construction time of building
Conventional dwelling → Dwelling
Country of birth
Couple
De facto marital status
De facto population
Disability
Duration of temporary absence
Duration of temporary presence
Dwelling
Economically active population
Economically inactive population
Education
Employed
Employment status
Ethnic nationality
Family = Family nucleus
Family nucleus
Homeless → Type of household
Household
Institutional household → Type of household
Labour force = Economically active population
Legal marital status
Length of working week
Long-term illness → Disability
Main place of work
Main source of subsistence
Moment of Census
Mother tongue
Multi-family household → Composition of household
Non-family household → Composition of household
Non-studying person
Number of children given birth to
Number of rooms in the dwelling
Occupancy of dwelling
Occupation
One-family household → Composition of household
Owner of dwelling
Parent
Parents' country of birth
Permanent place of residence = Place of residence
Person's status in the household
Place of birth
Place of residence
Place of work
Population
Population of cities
Population of rural municipalities
Private household → Type of household
Religious affiliation
Resident in an institution
Size of household
Studying person
Temporarily absent population
Temporarily present population
Temporarily resident population in Estonia
Temporary resident in an institution
Tenure status
Time of immigration
Type of building
Type of dwelling → Dwelling
Type of household
Unemployed
Unknown
Usual place of residence = Place of residence
Usual resident population = Population

Age – person's age has been given in full years as at 31 March 2000. The age of children under 1 year of age is 0 years.

Area of the dwelling – the total floor area of rooms and secondary rooms (kitchen, hall, toilet, pantry, interspace, bathroom, storage room, veranda, built-in cupboards). The area of balconies and terraces (i.e. open spaces), cellars, garages, corridors and other public rooms was not included in the total area of dwellings in apartment buildings.

The average floor area of dwellings is obtained by dividing the total area of dwellings by number of dwellings which area is known.

Branch of economic activity – the main orientation of manufacturing/economic activities of person or main employer.

Building – construction permanently connected to the ground, enclosed within external walls, covered by roof and containing rooms. Census covered the buildings containing conventional dwellings.

Child in the household – person (regardless of age and legal marital status) with no partner and no child(dren) who has usual residence in one-family household or multi-family household of at least one of the parents. Both biological and adopted children were recorded as as children, but not foster children. In some tables (see footnotes to tables), in addition to abovementioned, all 18-years old persons with no parent (and no partner or child(ren)) in the same household are also defined as children. In non-family households with two or more members, persons younger than 18 years of age are also defined as children.

In households not comprising family nucleus with two or more members (Non-family household) persons younger than 18 years of age is also defined as a child

Citizenship – the country, of which he/she is a citizen, was recorded. If the person had several citizenships, it was possible to record up to two countries.

"Citizenship undetermined" was recorded for persons who had an "aliens passport", and also for persons who asserted that they had not received the document and did not know their citizenship. For children, who had a passport or a certificate of citizenship, the citizenship was recorded according to that document. In the case of other children it was proceeded from the following:

the child was considered an Estonian citizen if at least one of his/her parents was an Estonian citizen at the time of the birth of the child (if father had died before that, then at the time of the death of father);
the child was considered a citizen of a foreign country if the parent was a citizen of this foreign country. If the child acquired citizenship of two countries by birth, both citizenships were recorded;
in the remaining cases the child's citizenship was undetermined.

If in the case of persons with double citizenship only one citizenship has been presented, the country standing ahead in the following list was taken into account: Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, the other country denoted first, the other country denoted secondly.

Cohabitant – person who is not legally married but who in his/her opinion has a marriage relationship and common place of residence and common household with his/her partner. Only relationships between partners of opposite sex were considered.

Comfort characteristics – availability of kitchen (kitchenette), water supply system, sewage disposal system, hot water, bath (shower) sauna, flush toilet, electricity, gas, central and electric heating in the dwelling. If the dwelling was equipped with some type of facilities (comfort characteristics) but it had been switched off due to an emergency, at the request made by inhabitants or because the inhabitants were unable to pay for the service, it was still regarded as available. However, if these facilities had been switched off for a longer time (one year and longer) because of the termination of supplying them with energy (for example, the boiler house of the former co-operative in the central settlement is no longer operating), then this type of facility is missing (the answer was "no").

Kitchen - a room of at least 4 square metres or 2 metres wide that has been equipped for the preparation of meals and, as a rule, it also has a window.
Kitchenette - part of a room equipped for the preparation of meals (for example, a fixed oven in a kitchenette; a (windowless) niche of less than 4 square metres with a contemporary stove and sink; the permanent wall between a room and a kitchen is missing (for example, it has been torn down).
Water supply system - "yes" was recorded in case cold water came into the dwelling through pipes from an external central network and water tap was used.
Sewage disposal system - "yes" was recorded in case wastewater and faeces emptied into a piped system connected to a public central or a local sewage disposal system or septic tank.
Hot water -"yes" was recorded in case it was received through the hot water tap in the dwelling. Whether hot water was received from an external network or from the boiler in the dwelling was insignificant.
Bath (shower) - "yes" was recorded in case the dwelling was equipped with a fixed bath or shower that was connected to a sewage disposal system. The way of receiving hot water is insignificant. There can be a bath (shower) only if the dwelling is connected to a sewage disposal system.
Sauna - "yes" was recorded in case sauna had been built into the apartment, one-family house or any other small residential building, also in case sauna was in a separate building in the grounds of the one-family house or of any other small residential building (i.e. outside the dwelling). Public saunas built in the cellars of the apartment buildings were not included here.
Flush toilet - "yes" was recorded in case faeces went into a sewage disposal system with the water coming from a water supply system.
Electricity - "yes" was recorded in case the dwelling was connected to a permanent source of electrical energy twenty-four hours a day.
Gas - "yes" was recorded in the case of the availability of either network or liquid gas (cylinder), irrespective of its way of use. In corridor type of houses where several families shared the kitchen, all the dwellings (rooms) were regarded as equipped with gas in case there were fixed gas ovens in the kitchen.
Central heating - "yes" was recorded in case the dwelling was heated through a heat supply pipeline either from a central or a local boiler house, also in the case of the use of a gas heater or a small boiler working with gas or solid fuel. There can be several heating systems in the dwelling at the same time (central heating, electric heating, stove heating); "yes" was recorded in case the central heating was the main (mostly used) heating system.
Electric heating - "yes" was recorded in case fixed electric heating equipment (electric heaters) were used in the dwelling and it was the main heating system.

Command of foreign languages – language(s) which the person could read, write or speak was (were) recorded. Only those languages could be recorded which the person commanded besides mother tongue. The variants for answers were: "Estonian", "Russian", "English", "German", "French", "Finnish", "Swedish", "Latvian", "native language", "other language(s)", "no command of other languages". The variant "native language" was privileged among others - if the native language coincided with one of the languages designated in the questionnaire (e.g. Estonian), the note "native language" was preferred. If the native language had not been designated in the table, the answer was divided between other languages, taking into consideration the nationality of the person.

The person was considered to have a command of the language if his/her knowledge of the designated language enabled him/her to cope in familiar situations of language use in reading, writing or speaking (also listening). The ability to express oneself in familiar everyday communication situations, to understand a clear talk on everyday topics, to understand an overall content of a simple text and to compile short texts on everyday life was considered a sufficient level of knowledge of the language in order to answer in affirmative. If some ability was missing but another one was significantly exceeding the said requirements, then the answer could still be "yes". For example, a person could be considered as knowing the language if he/she

spoke quite fluently but could not write;
could read special literature in foreign language but could not speak it;
understood radio/television programmes in foreign languages but could not speak or write.

Answering the question on command of foreign languages was voluntary.

Composition of household – private households were distributed by composition into three groups - non-family households, one-family households and multi-family households. Each group was divided further into sub-groups (the level of detail varies in different tables)

Non-family household - household which does not comprise a family nucleus (e.g. one-person household; grandparent and grandchild; sister and brother; persons who have no blood relationship between them).
One-family household - household which comprises one family nucleus and which may also include persons who do not belong to the family nucleus (so-called "other persons").
Multi-family household - household which comprises two or more family nuclei and which may also include persons who do not belong to the family nucleus.

Conscript – a person who served in the armed forces, in the navy or at borders of the Republic of Estonia, as well as in active compulsory service considered equal to military service. Students in military educational institutions were recorded as conscripts. Officers and persons staying overtime in military service were regarded as employed.

Construction time of building – the period, which includes the year of official completion of the building (taken into exploitation). If building had undergone reconstruction, extension etc. still the period containing the year of first completion of he building was recordes as construction time (excluding the case when the building had been completely destroyed and then rebuilt). "Uncompleted building" was recorded in the case of a building some rooms of which were already used for permanent habitation although the local government had not given the permission to use it.

Country of birth – was recorded according to national boundaries at the beginning of 2000. For the persons who were born before 1945 on the area between the national boundary of the Republic of Estonia and temporary control line (the part of Viru county beyond Narva River and the part of Petseri county) Russia was recorded as the country of birth. If the population has been divided into persons born in Estonia and persons born in foreign countries, the persons whose country of birth was unknown but it was obvious that they were born in foreign country (e.g. "Central Asia"etc) were also included in the latter group.

Couple – includes both legally married and cohabiting couples (male-female relationship).

De facto marital status – persons aged 15 years and older and as well as persons whose age was unknown were distributed by the existence of the partner into two groups.

Living with a partner - person who has a partner he/she was legally married to or is cohabiting with in the same household.
Living without a partner - person who has no partner living in the same household.

De facto population – permanent residents present in a certain administrative unit or settlement at the Census moment and in addition residents having temporarily lived there for less than one year.

Disability (long-term illness or disability) – person was considered to have a disability if at 31 March 2000 he/she suffered from some illness or disability which has lasted (or probably will last) for at least one year and which has been determined by the medical commission of experts. If the disabled person needed permanent help in everyday life (when eating, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, etc.) the answer "You need assistance in taking care of yourself" was recorded. Assistance meant only the help provided by other persons, not technical aids (wheelchair, crutches, etc.). The need of assistance was recorded only if it was caused by disability, not by age (babies, old persons). The question about the need of assistance was not asked the persons who had no disability.

Duration of temporary absence – period (in months) from the person's departure from his/her permanent place of residence up to the moment of Census. In the case of short-term (less than one month) absence, one month was recorded as a period of absence. Pupils of general education establishments living in the study area were regarded as temporarily absent from their parents' place of residence since the beginning of the school year.

Duration of temporary presence – period (in months) from the arrival of the temporarily present person in a certain administrative unit or settlement up to the moment of Census. In the case of short-term (less than one month) presence, one month was recorded as a period of presence. Pupils of general education establishments living in the study area were regarded as temporarily present since the beginning of the school year.

Dwelling – family dwelling, apartment or other separate room suitable for all-the-year-round habitation. In addition rooms which were not designed for permanent habitation were considered to be dwellings if at the Census moment at least one person was residing there permanently. Dwellings were classified as conventional dwellings, non-conventional dwellings and accommodation rooms.

Conventional dwelling - family dwelling, part of the family dwelling, apartment or separate living room(s). Census covered all conventional dwellings regardless of whether some person lived there or not at the Census moment. The conventional dwellings were distributed as follows:
1. Family dwelling - a small residential building (including farmhouse, housing unit of row house and semi-detached house or former summer cottage that has been rebuilt for all-the-year-round habitation), which comprises one dwelling.
2. Part of the family dwelling - family dwelling is divided into several dwellings (with separate entrances and secondary rooms or only separate kitchens).
3. Apartment - dwelling (with secondary rooms) that is entirely isolated from other dwellings and allow running a household. Kitchenettes and dwellings provided by the employer are also regarded as apartments.
4. Separate living room(s) - isolated rooms in hostel-type houses that are currently not used as accommodation rooms (e.g. privatised room in a former hostel).
Non-conventional dwelling (non-dwelling used for habitation) - these comprise miscellaneous rooms converted for human habitation (storage, mill, garage, etc.), summer cottages that are not suitable for all-the-year-round habitation, caravans, trailers, boathouses, ships, if at the Census moment at least one household was living there permanently. These do not include accommodation rooms for passengers on board the ships or in train compartments, these were not regarded as dwellings.
Accommodation room - room at the hostel, hotel, camping grounds, motel, boarding house, sports and recreation centre, rest home, guesthouse, tourism farm, etc. that, in principle, is meant for temporary use (the household has no property right) but was the permanent place of residence of at least one person at the Census moment.

Economically active population (labour force) – persons (aged 15 years and older and persons whose age is unknown) who were considered employed or unemployed or who were conscripts in the week preceding the Census (20-26 March 2000).

Economically inactive population – persons aged 15 years and older who did not want to or could not work for some reason but who were not considered as unemployed or who were not conscripts in the week preceding the Census (20-26 March 2000) as well as all under 15-year-old persons.

Student (pupil) - person who was acquiring general, vocational or professional education in formal educational system (officially recognised and organisationally ensured education), i.e. in institutions of general education, vocational education or higher education. Students studying in military educational institutions were recorded as being in conscripts. Persons on academic leave were classified according to the activity they were engaged with during the leave.
Pensioner - person who had been granted an old-age pension, survivor's pension, disablement or public pension.
Homemaker - person who was not seeking work and was not ready to start work within two weeks and was engaged in unpaid household duties and/or took care of the children and other members of the family, for example, persons on parental leave (persons on pregnancy and childbirth leave were not included) or other persons responsible for the care of the household.
Not working for other reasons - persons not working for other reasons, including:
1. persons in police or penal institutions, including police houses of detention, detention cells, prisons, pre-trial imprisonment or refugee camps;
2. persons who saw no reason for working or who lived off their property (rentiers);
3. persons who would have wanted to work but who for some reason had given up seeking work;
4. persons who were not seeking work and who were not ready to start work within the next two weeks as he/she attended training courses;
5. persons not working due to disability or long-term illness.

Education – education as such means the educational attainment. The educational attainment of persons is determined by the highest educational institution or grade completed in the formal educational system (officially recognised and organisationally ensured programs), i.e. in institutions of general education, of vocational education and higher education; education that is uncompleted does not raise its level. Distinction is made between education completed in general education institution (secondary school, gymnasium, basic school) or general education and vocational or professional education (education attained in a vocational or professional secondary education institution or higher school). The level of vocational or professional education received in a foreign country should be determined similar to determining the educational attainment completed in Estonia.

Candidate of sciences / doctor's degree - persons who have been awarded a candidate of sciences or doctor's degree. Also persons who have completed residentship are recorded here.
Master's degree - persons who have been awarded a master's degree. Also persons who have completed internship are recorded here.
Higher education - persons who have a diploma certifying higher education (has completed higher education on the basis of a program of an institute, academy, university or any other educational institution, except that of adult education courses or of the university of marxism-leninism). Graduates of higher party school have a higher education in case this school gave higher education at the time of its existence (such schools were in Moscow and Leningrad).
Professional secondary / technical education after secondary education - persons who have completed professional secondary education of a professional secondary or any other educational institution providing such education after he/she had completed secondary education.
Professional secondary / technical education after basic education - persons who have completed professional secondary education of a professional secondary or any other educational institution providing such education after he/she had completed basic education.
Vocational secondary education after secondary education - persons who have completed vocational secondary education of an educational institution providing such education after he/she had completed secondary education.
Vocational secondary education - persons who in the framework of the same program acquired in addition to vocational education also secondary education. Persons, who upon the completion of a general education institution (secondary school, gymnasium, etc.) received in addition to secondary education a document certifying their professional training, are not included here.
Vocational basic education - persons who in the framework of the same program acquired in addition to vocational education also basic education.
Vocational education - persons who have received the document on vocational training (in vocational, technical school, etc.) without acquiring even primary education. In-service training, re-training, training courses at the work and courses for own interest (language courses) are not considered vocational education
General secondary education - persons who have finished a secondary school of 10 grades, of 11-grades or of 12-grades, gymnasium, secondary scientific school, college of general education (except progymnasium or secondary scientific school of the period 1934-1940) or received general education in a special school (for childen with special needs or a closed special school for juvenile delinquents).
General basic education (incomplete secondary education) - persons who have finished
1. incomplete secondary school or seven grades in 1961 or earlier;
2. at least eight grades in 1962-1989;
3. basic school or at least nine grades in 1990 or later;
4. secondary scientific school or progymnasium until 1940;
5. completed basic education in special schools.
Primary education - persons who have finished
1. one-grade village school, town primary school, one- or two-grade country elementary school, parish school, higher elementary school until 1920;
2. four or six grades in 1930 or earlier;
3. six grades in 1930-1944 (including evening elementary schools for adults);
4. four grades in 1945-1971 or in 1991-1996;
5. three grades in 1972-1989;
6. six grades in 1990 or later.
No primary education, literate - persons who have not completed the level corresponding to primary education but who can, with understanding, both read and write a simple text on their everyday life (including writing used by the blind).
No primary education, illiterate - persons who have not completed the level corresponding to primary education and cannot, with understanding, both read and write a simple text on their everyday life.

In case of presenting less detailed classification of education, the following levels have been aggregated:

Higher education and over - higher education, masters's degree, candidate of sciences / doctor's degree.
Secondary education - general secondary education, vocational secondary education, vocational secondary education after secondary education.
Basic education - general basic education, vocational basic education.
No basic education - primary education; no primary education, literate; no primary education, illiterate; vocational education.

Employed – person who during the week preceding the Census (20-26 March 2000)

worked for payment under contract or according to an agreement, including:
- work for payment in kind (for food, housing, fuels, etc.);
- work the payment for which was given in the form of royalties, contract payments or premium pays, as well as payment for piecework, tips, commission or as percentage of sales in compliance with the agreement made with the employer;
worked in own enterprise or farm, private practice;
worked for pay or without pay in an enterprise or farm of another member of the household;
worked part-time;
dealt with activity providing illegal income;
was temporarily absent from work.

All persons who had worked at least one hour or were temporarily absent from work during the week preceding the Census (20-26 March 2000) were regarded as having worked. If actual working did not coincide with the formal work relationship, then it was proceeded from the actual working.

Employment status – person's employment status at his/her main place of work. Employed persons are distributed by the employment status into six groups:
Salaried employees - persons who

in the week preceding the Census were engaged in full- or part-time job for the institution, enterprise or any other employer, for which they were remunerated either by money or in kind (it is insignificant whether the place of work was officially registered or not
had a contractual relationship with the employer (employment contract, contract of agreement, work relationship based on the Public Service Act, oral agreement with the employer) but were temporarily absent from work.

Officers and persons earning their living with casual work were also regarded as salaried employees.

Employee with a stable contract - employee who had had and who probably continued to have a contract with an employer for a year or longer.
Other employee - employee who had had a contract with the employer that lasted less than one year; the same applied to casual workers.
Entrepreneur-employer, farmer with salaried employees - person who:
1. had his/her own enterprise or service-mediation-/business activity (workshop, bureau, shop, etc.), where the services of at least one salaried employee were used (it was insignificant whether the enterprise had been registered or not) or
2. who operated a farm where at least one salaried employee worked on a permanent basis (except for own members of the family). Co-owners of a firm were regarded as entrepreneurs with salaried employees or entrepreneurs without salaried employees depending on whether their firms used salaried employees or not.
Self-employed person, freelancer, farmer without salaried employees - person who
1. was engaged in selling of his/her work product (service or commodity) and who owned the necessary means of production and did not use salaried employees or
2. was partner in a partnership which did not employ salaried employees or
3. operated a farm where no salaried employees worked on a permanent basis (except for own members of the family) or
4. was a freelancer, i.e. creative worker who was not employed by anybody (for example, artist, writer, etc.). Employee who earned his/her living by doing casual work was not regarded as freelancer.
Contributing family worker in a family enterprise, farm - person who in the week preceding the Census worked without direct payment in a family enterprise (or farm which was owned by one of the members of the family) and who in return received part of the income or benefits of the enterprise or farm.
Member of the commercial association - person who was a member in an association the objective of which was to receive and distribute the material income between its members.
Conscript - person who served in the armed forces, in the navy or at the borders of the Republic of Estonia, as well as in active compulsory service considered equal to military service. Students in military educational institutions were recorded as conscripts. Officers and persons staying overtime in military service were regarded as employed.

Ethnic nationality – the ethnic nationality named by the person himself/herself was recorded. The person had the right to consider himself/herself to be a member of that ethnic nationality who he/she felt to be most closely connected to ethnically and culturally. Parents determined the ethnic nationality of their children. If the child's mother and father were of different ethnic nationalities and the parents had difficulties in determining the ethnic nationality of their child, the ethnic nationality of the mother was preferred.

Family nucleus (family) – family nucleus consists of two or more persons living in the same household who are related as husband and wife, as cohabiting partners or as parent and child. Each household member can be a member of only one family nucleus. Family nucleus can be:

married couple or cohabiting couple without children (couple without children),
married couple or cohabiting couple with children (couple with children, children need not be common)
lone parent with child(ren)

Person (regardless of age and legal marital status) was considered to be a child belonged to the same family nucleus as his/her parents (parent) if he/she had not a partner (spouse, cohabitant) and/or child (children) in the household. Both as biological and adopted children were recorded as a children, foster children were not.

Family nucleus cannot consist of more than two successive generations. If the household comprised three (or more) generations with parental relationship between them (child, his/her mother and grandmother) the family nucleus was formed of the two youngest generation. In case of competitive relationship

marital/cohabital relationship was preferred to parental relationship,
in case of parental relationship the relationship of younger generations was preferred

Reconstituted family nucleus - married or cohabiting couple with one or more children where at least one child is a non-common child.

Household – persons who live together at the same address and are linked by a common use of all available household facilities (shared budget and shared food). A person living alone is also considered a separate household. Relationship or kinship between household members was not necessarily required. If a person shared a dwelling with some other person but bought food himself/herself and had a separate budget, then he/she was considered a separate household. Persons in welfare, health and other institutions as well as persons in compulsory military service and in penal institutions and maintained by the mentioned institution were considered an institutional household.

Legal marital status – persons aged 15 years and older and persons whose age was unknown were distributed into the following four groups:

Never married - person who had never been legally married.
Legally married - person whose marriage was legal (the marriage was registered at a vital statistics office upon contraction of the marriage) and had not terminated upon the death of a spouse or upon divorce. Person was considered as legally married also if he/she did not live with his/her spouse but the divorce had not yet been finally formalised. Marriage is legal if it is contracted between a man and a woman.
Divorced - person whose previous legal marriage terminated upon divorce and who had not entered again into a legal marriage.
Widowed - person whose previous legal marriage terminated upon the death of his/her spouse and who had not entered again into a legal marriage.

Length of working week – time in hours actually worked during typical working week of person over the longer period at all places of work.

Length of working week at the main place of work - time in hours actually worked during typical working week of person over the longer period at the main place of work.

Main place of work – the place of work where the person worked for most of the time.

Main source of subsistence – money or other income (food, clothes, accommodation, housing, fuel, etc.) received which is significant with respect to coping of the person. The main source of subsistence of the last 12 months was recorded. If a person considered two sources of subsistence as important for his/her coping, then both were recorded: the most relevant was recorded as first and the other as second. The order of importance was determined by the person himself/herself. If a relevant change, regarding the source of subsistence, had taken place recently and it had probably lasted for a longer time (the person retired, took on a permanent job, stayed on maternity leave, started service in the armed forces, etc.), then the source of subsistence which had been recently the most significant one for the person and which had probably remain the main source of subsistence also in the future was recorded as the main source of subsistence.

Wage and salary - was recorded as a source of subsistence for those who during the last 12 months had worked under employment contract, contract of agreement, according to the Public Service Act or oral agreement with the employer for payment received as money or in kind (food, fuel, etc.). This group comprises all compensations received for work (including casual labour), including royalties, contract payments, premium pays, as well as income received for piecework, tips and commission or percentage of sales in compliance with the agreement made with the employer. Also scholarships and other money received for doing a certain work, research or project were regarded as wages.
Entrepreneurial income, income from farming - was recorded as a source of subsistence for those who had received income from production, mediation and business activity, in which the person covered by the Census was actively involved with. Whether it was an individual or enterprise, whether the enterprise had been registered or not was insignificant.
Property income, income from capital (rental income, dividends, interests) - were recorded as a source of subsistence for those who had received income from letting (real or personal) property, have received income in the form of interests on loan, dividends on shares or from entrepreneurship or business activity or in any other way where the person covered by the Census himself/herself was not actively involved with.
Pension - was recorded as a source of subsistence for those who received their subsistence in the form of an old-age pension, public pension, incapacity pension, survivor's pension or any other pension.
Benefits, scholarships, supports - was recorded as a source of subsistence for those who received their subsistence in the form of subsistence benefits, state or other child benefits, unemployment benefits, scholarships founded by the Republic of Estonia, local governments, foreign countries or private persons (except scholarships or other money granted for doing a certain work, research or project - these were regarded as wages), or in the form of other supports, for example, to freelance artists and writers (through the medium of Cultural Endowment or any other fund). State and other child benefits were recorded as a source of subsistence for the child's parent or custodian in whose name they had been granted to, in case they were important with respect to coping.
Maintained by an institution - was recorded as a source of subsistence for person who in the last 12 months had been mainly maintained by an institution, e.g., inmates in social welfare institutions (children's homes, general care homes, special care homes, etc.), conscripts in the service of the Defence Forces, imprisoned persons, etc.
Maintained by other persons - was recorded as a source of subsistence for person, who had been maintained by household members or other persons (parents, spouse, relatives, etc.), e.g., child. Students, who in the last 12 months received support (money or food) from their parents and for whom this support formed a significant part of their sources of subsistence, were also recorded as maintained by other persons. Persons, for whom alimony formed a significant part of their source of subsistence, were also recorded here.
Loans, deposits, receipts from the sale of possessions - was recorded as a source of subsistence for all those who had received their subsistence, for example, in the form of study loans or any other loans meant for immediate use, also money (savings) taken from deposit, sale of shares or business stocks, sale of real or personal property, i.e. for persons who received subsistence from the realisation of the previously acquired possessions. Loans taken for the purchase of dwellings, buildings, etc. was not taken into account.
Personal auxiliary household - was recorded as a source of subsistence for those who received their main subsistence from the production of agricultural products (vegetables, horticultural products, farm animals, etc.) only for own consumption.
Other source - was recorded as a source of subsistence for those who during the last 12 months received their main subsistence from sources not elsewhere classified. This includes also persons for whom the main source of subsistence was begging or collecting waste (garbage and bottles), etc.

Moment of Census – the date and the time fixing the data collected by the Census. The moment of Census of the 2000 Population Census was on 31 March 2000 at 00.00.

Mother tongue – the language that was the first language spoken in early childhood and which is usually the language that the person commands best. Parents told the mother tongue of their children. If parents had difficulties in determining the child's mother tongue, the language most currently spoken in the household was recorded. For deaf-mutes the language they read and wrote or which their household members or persons with whom they communicated most often spoke was recorded as their mother tongue. Mentally disabled non-speaking persons were also treated as deaf-mutes.

Non-studying person – persons aged 3 years and older and persons whose age is unknown who do not go to a pre-primary children's institution, or do not study in institutions of general, vocational or higher education. Also persons, who attend preparatory courses for children of pre-school age or attend in-service training or re-training courses, training for the unemployed or courses for own interest (informal learning), are included here.

Number of children given birth to – the total number of children born alive (regardless of whether they are living or dead at the time of the Census) of women aged 15 years and older and of women whose age is unknown. Adopted children and foster children were not taken into account. The tabels which cover women who have given birth to a child by age include also the women who were younger than 15 at the Census moment.

Number of rooms in the dwelling – room is a living room, bedroom, nursery, study, attic, dining room, etc. If a permanent wall between a room and a kitchen was missing (for example, it had been torn down) the kitchen was regarded as part of the room. Kitchen, entrance hall, toilet, bathroom, pantry, sauna rooms and other secondary rooms were not counted as rooms. Kitchenette and a room in a building of a hostel type (if the room was used separately as a dwelling) were counted as rooms. Rooms that were used only for business or work purposes did not count as rooms.

Occupancy of dwelling – conventional dwellings were distributed by the occupancy as follows:

Occupied dwelling -- dwelling was occupied if at the Census moment it was a permanent place of residence of at least one person.
Reserved dwelling - dwelling which was not a permanent place of residence of any person but temporary inhabitants were living there or the owner had reserved it for seasonal or secondary use.
Vacant dwelling - dwelling was vacant if at the Census moment it was not a permanent place of residence of any person and it was not reserved. Only these vacant dwellings were counted that were suitable for all-the-year-round use.

Occupation – occupation of the person at the person's main place of work (according to person's main work tasks).

Owner of dwelling – conventional dwellings were distributed by the owner of dwelling as follows:

State - dwelling is owned by a state agency or national organisation (fund).
Local government -dwelling is owned by a city (city district) or rural municipality.
Person residing in Estonia - the permanent place of residence of the owner of the dwelling is in Estonia.
Person residing in a foreign country - the permanent place of residence of the owner of the dwelling is outside of the Republic of Estonia.
Dwelling association - the owner of the dwelling is a dwelling association (dwelling co-operative). Member of the apartment association who is an owner of the dwelling is not taken into account here.
Other -the owner of the dwelling is, for example, a commercial undertaking, church or any other non-profit institution, foundation, etc.

Parent – person who or whose partner (spouse, cohabitant) has a child in the same household.

Parents' country of birth – the country according to the division of countries at the beginning of the year 2000. For persons who were born before 1945 on the area between the national boundary of the Republic of Estonia and temporary control line (the part of Viru county beyond Narva River and the part of Petseri county), Estonia was recorded as the country of birth.

Person's status in the household – residents of private households were distributed by their status in the household into persons who belong to some family nucleus ("child", "spouse", "cohabitant", "lone parent") and persons who do not belong to any family nucleus ("person living alone", "other status").

Child - person (regardless of age and legal marital status) was considered to be a child belonging to the same family nucleus as his/her parents (parent) if he/she had not a partner (spouse, cohabitant) and child(ren) in the same household. Both biological and adopted children were recorded as children, but not foster children.
Spouse - person who has a legal spouse living in the same family nucleus.
Cohabitant - person who has a cohabiting partner of opposite sex living in the same family nucleus.
Lone parent - person without a partner (spouse, partner in consensual union) who has child(ren) living in the same family nucleus.
Person living alone - person who has no other residents living in his/her household (i.e. one-person household).
Other status - person who is not living alone but is not a member of any family nucleus.

Place of birth – mother's place of residence at the time the person was born according to the administrative division at the beginning of 2000. For persons who were born abroad, the country was recorded according to national boundaries at the beginning of 2000. The persons who were born before 1945 on the area between the national boundary of the Republic of Estonia and temporary control line (the part of Viru county beyond Narva River and the part of Petseri county) Russia was recorded as the country of birth but they were not included in the list of the immigrants into Estonia.

Place of residence (permanent/usual place of residence) – administrative unit or settlement, where the dwelling in which the person lived permanently at the time of the Census, is located. The place of residence at the time of the 1989 Population Census (12 January 1989) was recorded according to the administrative division valid at the beginning of 2000. If the person's permanent place of residence was outside the boundaries of the present Republic of Estonia the name of the country according to the boundaries valid in 2000 was recorded. The permanent place of residence was the place where the person intended to live or where he/she had lived at least one year (in 1989 at least 6 months). For the person who had more than one place of residence the permanent place of residence was the place where his/her household was living. The permanent place of residence of university students and of pupils of professional secondary or other vocational education institutions living in the study area was the dwelling where the studies took place (not the place of residence of parents). The permanent place of residence of persons, who had lived in an institution (social welfare institutions, prisons) for more than a year or who would stay there for more than a year, was the institution. (in 1989 the time limit was 6 months.) The permanent place of residence of persons in military service was the place where they departed from for military service. The permanent place of residence of diplomatic staff of diplomatic missions and consular posts of the Republic of Estonia and their household members who were in a foreign country during the Census was their place of residence in Estonia. The permanent place of residence of homeless persons was the settlement where they were enumerated.

Place of work (address) – the actual location of the main place of work / employer where person worked for most of the time in the week preceding the Census.

No fixed place of work - was recorded for persons who had worked in different places during the week.

Population (usual resident population) – permanent residents present in the certain administrative unit or settlement at the moment of Census and residents temporarily absent from there for less than a year.

Population of cities – population of city municipalities. Population of cities without municipal status has been included in the population of rural municipalities.

Population of rural municipalities – population living in settlements of rural municipalities (cities without municipal status, towns, small towns and villages).

Religious affiliation – persons aged 15 years and older and persons whose age is unknown were distributed by their religious affiliation as follows:

follower of a particular faith - a person who confesses some faith. The person did not necessarily have to be a member of a church or of a congregation, and it was unimportant if a person was baptised or not. In the case of this answer it was specified which faith the person regarded as his/her own. Only one faith could be recorded. The answers in which the subdivision of a religion was not specified were not recorded (e.g. "I believe in God", "own faith", etc.);
person is considered to have no religious affiliation when he/she does not deny the faith but does not regard any as his/hers;
atheist - a person who knowingly denies the existence of a God and religion;
cannot define the affiliation - a person cannot determine his/her religion;
refuses to answer - a person is not willing to answer the question.

Answering the questions about religion was voluntary.

Resident in an institution – person who at the Census moment had been living in an institution for more than a year or who stayed there for more than a year.

Size of household – the number of usual residents of the household.

Studying person – person aged 3 years and older and person whose age is unknown and who is acquiring general, vocational or professional education in a formal educational system (officially recognised and organisationally ensured programs), i.e. in institutions of general education, of vocational education, of higher education or in pre-school institutions. Also full-time studies (day, evening) or correspondence courses should be registered, as well as those, in the case of which the person does not attend school temporarily, but the formal connections with the educational institution have been preserved (academic leave, free semester, etc.).

Studying persons are distributed by level of study as follows:

Pre-primary education (pre-primary children's institution) - persons who go to an infants', toddlers', or special group in a pre-primary children's institution (nursery school, kindergarten, kindergarten for handicapped, kindergarten-primary school). Persons, who study in a school class at the pre-primary children's institution or take a preparatory course for children of pre-school age, are not included here.
1-6th grade - persons who study in the 1-6th grade of an institution of general education (primary school, basic school, secondary school, gymnasium, etc.).
7-9th grade - persons who study in the 7-9th grade of an institution of general education.
10-12th grade - persons who study in the 10-12th grade of an institution of general education.
Vocational or professional secondary education after basic education - persons who acquire vocational, vocational secondary or professional secondary education in the framework of the program entry which requires the successful completion of basic education. The persons who acquire vocational education in institutions where there is no entrance requirements with respect to educational attainment are also included here. The prerequisite is that the process of studying should last at least 9 months. The persons who study in an institution of general education and acquire occupation simultaneously are excluded (they belong to the previous group).
Vocational or professional secondary education after secondary education - persons who acquire vocational, vocational secondary or professional secondary education in the framework of the program entry which requires the successful completion of secondary education.
Higher education - persons who study
1. according to the program of vocational higher education;
2. at a diploma course, i.e. according to the program of a higher educational institution at the graduation from which no academic degree is awarded but only a diploma is given certifying the completion of higher education;
3. at a bachelor course.
Master's course - persons who take a master's course at a higher school (including internship).
Doctor's course - persons who take a doctor's course at a higher school (including residentship).

Temporarily absent population – persons who had been continuously absent from their permanent place of residence for less than one year and who at 00.00 on the eve of 31 March 2000 were:

in dwellings outside the city or rural municipality of their permanent place of residence;
in hotels and other accommodation establishments, in health care, social welfare and other similar institutions, regardless of the location of the institution (whether in the same city, rural municipality or elsewhere);
in hostels of general education establishments or elsewhere outside home in connection with studies (except students in higher, professional secondary or vocational education establishments);
in military barracks, etc. in connection with compulsory service in the armed forces or training for reserve or alternative service;
detained in a police authority or under preliminary investigation in penal institutions;
imprisoned (term of punishment less than a year);
passengers on international coaches, trains, aircraft and ships;
in a foreign country.

Persons, who at the Census moment were not in their permanent place of residence but were in another dwelling in the same city or rural municipality, who were outside the boundaries of the local government of their permanent place of residence where it was not possible to enumerate them or where the enumeration is not provided for (at work, travelling, on the way to somewhere, etc.), were not regarded as temporarily absent.

Temporarily present population – persons who had been living in a certain administrative unit or settlement for less than on year and who have permanent place of residence elsewhere.

Temporarily resident population in Estonia – permanent residents of foreign countries who were in Estonia at the moment of Census.

Temporary resident in an institution – person who at the Census moment had been living in an institution for less than a year or who stayed there for less than a year.

Tenure status – households were distributed by the tenure status as follows:

Owner - one member of the household living in the dwelling is its owner.
Member of dwelling association - there is at least one member of the dwelling association (dwelling co-operative) in the household
Tenant - the household has a contract of tenancy for using the dwelling or any other basis provided by law (incl. oral agreement).
Other - any kind of basis for using the dwelling is missing or the basis for the use cannot be determined.

Time of immigration – the year when the person settled permanently in Estonia. If the person has settled in Estonia more than once, the year of the last arrival was recorded.

Type of building – buildings were distributed as follows:

Apartment building - consists of at least three apartments that generally have an entrance in a common entrance hall or corridor.
One-family house - residential building originally designed and built for one family where also many households may live and which is not divided into apartments. Also farmhouses and former summer cottages rebuilt for all-the-year-round habitation are included here. If the one-family house had been rebuilt into two isolated apartments, the answer "other small residential building" was recorded. The concept of "one-family house" differs from the concept of "family dwelling". The latter indicates the type of dwelling and includes also the housing unit of row house and semi-detached house. One-family house as the type of building includes only one-family house which is not devided into apartments.
Other small residential building is:
1. a semi-detached residential building, which consists of two family houses situated in two neighbouring grounds and built together by their sides (as an exception also a residential building with two entrances locating in the same grounds - two-family house);
2. a row house which consists of at least three family houses (one housing unit of a row house) with separate entrances and connected with one another by a fire wall or a roof;
3. family house with two apartments built inside of it.
Non-residential building with dwelling(s) - building, approximately less than 50% of the useful area of which is used for habitation.
Accommodation building - building, at least 50% of the useful area of which is used for accommodation (e.g., hostel, hotel, camping grounds, motel, boarding house, sports and recreation centre, rest home, guest house, tourism farm, etc.)
Other building - a summer cottage which at the Census moment was a permanent place of residence of at least one person, a building converted for human habitation (sauna, stables, mill, garage, warehouse, etc.) which was used by at least one household as a permanent place of residence.

Type of household – households were devided into private households, institutional households and households of homeless persons.

Private household - household whose place of residence was dwelling and who did not have a permanent residence in an institution.
Institutional household - household consisting of persons who at the Census moment lived permanently or temporarily in an institution which operated twenty-four hours a day and maintained them (provided food, housing, care, if necessary), while the ownership and sources of financing were insignificant. All persons staying in one institution were considered one household. Service staff of an institution was not included in the institutional household. Institutions were divided as follows:
- educational institution - e.g. closed boarding houses at special schools where children are maintained by the institution.
- health care institution - e.g. hospitals, medical rehabilitation centres, institutions for mud-cure and other institutions for stationary medical treatment.
- social welfare institution - e.g. children's homes, youth homes, residential educational institutions, general care homes, special care homes, etc.Shelters for homeless where they spend nights incidentally were not recorded as institutions.
- military institution - e.g. barracks, etc.
- religious institution - e.g. convents, monasteries.
- other institution - e.g. penal institutions, refugee camps.
Homeless person - person who had no dwelling at the Census moment and who spent nights in incidental basements, staircases, heating rooms, abandoned buildings, huts, shelters for the homeless, etc. Person whose permanent place of residence was a dwelling not designed for habitation (the type of dwelling is "non-conventional dwelling") was not recorded as homeless. Homeless persons could also form multi-person household.

Unemployed – person in the case of whom the following three conditions are fulfilled at the same time during the week preceding the Census (20-26 March 2000):

he/she was unemployed,
he/she had been actively seeking work during the past four weeks,
in the case of finding work he/she was ready to start working within two weeks.

Active job seeking comprised all steps taken to find a job or start entrepreneurship (e.g. registration at a public or any other employment exchange, meeting possible employers, placing or answering newspaper advertisements, applications to employers, acquiring information about free workplaces from acquaintances or relatives, going to places of recruitment of temporary labour (markets, etc.), registration of an enterprise/farm, applying for a permit or a loan to start activity, looking for land, rooms, equipment, employees, etc. to establish own enterprise/farm). Waiting for an earlier agreed work to start was also considered to be equal to job seeking.

Unknown – the table's row or column "unknown" includes cases where the answer has not been recorded on the questionnaire or the answer that has been recorded is ambiguous.

Did you find what you were looking for?