“Statistical Yearbook of Estonia” describes life in Estonia in figures

While the Yearbook comprises the annual overviews of the environment, population, social life and the economy, the presentation held by Statistics Estonia focuses on two subjects.

At the presentation, Principal Analyst Mr Siim Krusell will discuss the changes that occurred in the Estonian population and social life in 2014. Mr Krusell points out as a positive development that, in 2014, unemployment decreased and real wages continued their moderate growth. “The situation on the labour market has improved but the number of working-age persons continues to decrease due to the decrease and ageing of the population,” Mr Krusell explained. “This, in turn, will improve the position of employees in the labour market and will put employers under wage pressure in the longer perspective,” he added. In the light of the improvement on the labour market and the increase in salaries, the number of persons who are in need of social protection has also decreased. “After the sudden increase during the economic crisis, the number of families receiving subsistence benefit has been continuously decreasing since 2012, last year there were nearly 16,600 of such families,” Mr Krusell explained and added that, at the same time, this number has not reached the level it was on in the years of rapid economic growth before the crisis. When taking into account people’s own estimation of their economic situation, 14% of 15–74-year-olds coped with difficulties and 38% coped with some difficulties in 2014; these indicators have not changed significantly compared to the previous year,” noted Mr Krusell.

Senior Analyst Ms Alis Tammur will discuss migration and the links between migration and education at the presentation. “In 2014, emigration was nearly 30% lower than in the three previous years and net migration of males was positive,” Ms Tammur noted as positive. “Emigration has mainly fallen due to the decrease in the number of people going to Finland, in which Finland’s continuing economic difficulties play their part,” she noted. In general, net migration remained negative – 4,637 persons emigrated from Estonia and 3,904 came to live here in 2014. Ms Tammur explained that when looking at the education levels of the immigrants and emigrants then you can see that they greatly differ by age groups. “The most active age group with regard to participating in external migration is that of 20–39-year-olds, and in that age group, there are fewer emigrants with higher education than in Estonia in that age group on average,” she noted. “Looking at the citizenship and education of the immigrants, over a half of the 20–39-year-olds migrating from non-EU countries into Estonia have obtained higher education,” Ms Tammur said.