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

The Yearbook provides annual overviews of all the areas of life that are subject to statistical monitoring. The Yearbook reflects important changes that have taken place in various fields during the year, compares previous years and provides comparisons with other countries. The presentation held by Statistics Estonia focuses on two subjects.

At the presentation, Principal Analyst Siim Krusell will discuss the changes that occurred in the Estonian labour market and households’ ability to cope. Krusell points out as positive developments the good labour market situation and the continued increase of real wages. “Despite the fact that the number of working age persons i.e. persons aged 15–74 was smaller in 2015 than in 2014, the number of persons active on the labour market increased,” Krusell explained and added that the number of employed persons increased both as a result of the decrease in the number of unemployed persons and of inactive persons starting employment.

In 2015, people’s assessments of how well they were coping also improved: 12% of inhabitants could not cope, which is 2 percentage points less than the year before. “Whether the person works or not affects their subjective assessments of coping the most,” Krusell explained and added that, as unemployment was lower in 2015 than in 2014, it can be expected that assessments of coping also improved. Krusell pointed out that although coping has improved, the risk groups have remained the same. “Poverty risk is greater in the case of the elderly who live alone, single parents with underage children and families with many children,” he explained.

Senior Analyst Alis Tammur will discuss population trends at the presentation. In 2015, for the first time in Estonia after regaining independence, the population increased more as a result of external migration than it decreased due to natural increase. “52% of immigrants and 69% of emigrants were citizens of Estonia, so the majority of external migration continues to consist in the back-and-forth mobility of citizens of Estonia,” Tammur explained. “In internal migration, we can still see a trend of focusing in the capital city region – although the population of Estonia has been mainly decreasing for a long time, the population of Tallinn and Harju county has been on the increase.”

The small increase in the number of births which started in 2014 continued in 2015, but natural increase remained negative. “The decrease in the number of births has stopped for now, but the decline will probably continue in the future as the number of women in fertile age is decreasing,” Tammur noted. “The average number of children per woman has increased, but the growth has been minuscule: while it was 1.52 in 2013, it was 1.58 in 2015. For population reproduction, the indicator should be at least 2.1.”