Analytics, Baltic States – CIS, Demography, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Society

The biggest ethnic groups are Estonians, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Finns.

According to the preliminary data of PHC 2011, there are representatives of 192 ethnic nationalities living in Estonia. 68.7% of Estonia’s permanent population are Estonians (889,770), 24.8% are Russians (321,198) and 1.7% are Ukrainians (22,302). The share of Belarusians (12,419) and Finns (7,423) is less than 1%. In total, there are 37 ethnic nationalities that have more than a hundred representatives in Estonia.

Compared to the previous census of 2000, the share of Estonians has increased two percent, but the population of Estonians has decreased by 40,449 over 12 years. The share of Russians in the total population has decreased by about one percent, i.e. by 29,980. There has been a decrease in the populations of most of the larger ethnic groups.

Enumerated permanent residents by ethnic nationality and sex, 31 Dec 2011

On the other hand, the number of Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Swedes, Englishmen, US Americans, Italians, Frenchmen, Dutch and Chinese has increased, compared to the previous population census.

During the 2000 census, 142 ethnic nationalities were represented in Estonia.