Estonians

"Estonian natives" redirects here. For the horse breed, see Estonian Native horse.

Estonians
eestlased
Countries with significant Estonian population and descendants.
Total population
c. 1.1 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Estonia 925,892 (2023)[2]
Other significant population centers:
 Finland49,590–100,000[a][3][4]
 United States29,128[5]
 Sweden25,509[6]
 Canada24,000[7]
 United Kingdom10,000–15,000[8]
 Russia7,778[9]
 Australia7,543[10]
 Germany6,286[11]
 Norway5,092[12]
 Ukraine2,868[13]
 Ireland2,560[14]
 Belgium2,000[15]
 Latvia1,676[16]
 Denmark1,658[17]
 Netherlands1,482[18]
Languages
Primarily Estonian
also Võro and Seto
Religion
Majority irreligious
Historically Protestant Christian (Lutheranism)[19][20]
Currently Lutheran and regional Eastern Orthodox (Estonian Apostolic Orthodox) minority
Related ethnic groups
Other Baltic Finns

Estonians or Estonian people (Estonian: eestlased) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group who speak the Estonian language. Their nation state is Estonia.

The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to other Finnic languages, e.g. Finnish, Karelian and Livonian. The Finnic languages are a subgroup of the larger Uralic family of languages, which also includes e.g. the Sami languages. These languages are markedly different from most other native languages spoken in Europe, most of which have been assigned to the Indo-European family of languages. Estonians can also be classified into subgroups according to dialects (e.g. Võros, Setos), although such divisions have become less pronounced due to internal migration and rapid urbanisation in Estonia in the 20th century.

There are approximately 1 million ethnic Estonians worldwide, with the vast majority of them residing in their native Estonia. Estonian diaspora communities formed primarily in Finland, the United States, Sweden, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

  1. ^ Estai
  2. ^ "Population by ethnic nationality". Statistics Estonia. June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Population". Statistics Finland. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Up to 100 000 Estonians work in Finland". Baltic News Network. 27 December 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  5. ^ "Table B04006 - People Reporting Ancestry - 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 17 September 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  6. ^ "Eestlased Rootsis". Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  7. ^ "Canada-Estonia Relations". Archived from the original on 20 November 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  8. ^ "United Kingdom". Ethnologue. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  9. ^ "Национальный состав населения". Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  10. ^ "2054.0 Australian Census Analytic Program: Australians' Ancestries (2001 (Corrigendum))" (PDF). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2001. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  11. ^ "Pressemitteilungen – Ausländische Bevölkerung – Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis)". www.destatis.de.
  12. ^ "Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, 1 January 2016". Statistics Norway. Accessed 01 May 2016.
  13. ^ "The distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue". State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. 2001. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008.
  14. ^ "Persons usually resident and present in the State on Census Night, classified by place of birth and age group". Central Statistics Office Ireland. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011.
  15. ^ "Estemb in Belgium and Luxembourg". Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  16. ^ "Usually resident population by ethnicity at the beginning of the year – 2018". csb.gov.lv.
  17. ^ "Statistikbanken". www.statistikbanken.dk. Population at the first day of the quarter by country of origin, region and time. Retrieved on 23 May 2024.
  18. ^ Official CBS website containing all Dutch demographic statistics. Cbs.nl. Retrieved on 4 July 2017.
  19. ^ Ivković, Sanja Kutnjak; Haberfeld, M.R. (10 June 2015). Measuring Police Integrity Across the World: Studies from Established Democracies and Countries in Transition. Springer. p. 131. ISBN 9781493922796. Estonia is considered Protestant when classified by its historically predominant major religion (Norris and Inglehart 2011) and thus some authors (e.g., Davie 2003) claim Estonia belongs to Western (Lutheran) Europe, while others (e.g., Norris and Inglehart 2011) see Estonia as a Protestant ex-Communist society.
  20. ^ Ringvee, Ringo (16 September 2011). "Is Estonia really the least religious country in the world?". The Guardian. For this situation there are several reasons, starting from the distant past (the close connection of the churches with the Swedish or German ruling classes) up to the Soviet-period atheist policy when the chain of religious traditions was broken in most families. In Estonia, religion has never played an important role on the political or ideological battlefield. The institutional religious life was dominated by foreigners until the early 20th century. The tendencies that prevailed in the late 1930s for closer relations between the state and Lutheran church [...] ended with the Soviet occupation in 1940.


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