Lithuania

For other uses, see Lithuania (disambiguation).
"Litwa" redirects here. For other uses, see Litwa (disambiguation).
"Lietuva" redirects here. For newspapers under the name Lietuva, see Lietuva (newspaper).

Republic of Lithuania
Lietuvos Respublika (Lithuanian)
Anthem: 
Tautiška giesmė
"National Hymn"
Location of Lithuania (dark green) – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in the European Union (green)  –  [Legend]
Location of Lithuania (dark green)

– in Europe (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (green)  –  [Legend]

Capital
and largest city
Vilnius
54°41′N 25°19′E / 54.683°N 25.317°E / 54.683; 25.317
Official languagesLithuanian[1]
Ethnic groups
(2024[2])
Religion
(2021[3])
Demonym(s)Lithuanian
GovernmentUnitary semi-presidential republic[4][5][6][7]
• President
Gitanas Nausėda
Ingrida Šimonytė
Saulius Skvernelis
LegislatureSeimas
Formation
9 March 1009
1236
• Coronation of Mindaugas
6 July 1253
2 February 1386
• Commonwealth created
1 July 1569
24 October 1795
16 February 1918
19 June 1940
11 March 1990
1 May 2004
Area
• Total
65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi) (121st)
• Water (%)
1.98 (2015)[8]
Population
• 2024 estimate
Neutral increase 2,885,891[9] (135th)
• Density
44/km2 (114.0/sq mi) (138th)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $144.585 billion[10] (88th)
• Per capita
Increase $50,600[10] (39th)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Neutral increase $81.979 billion[10] (78th)
• Per capita
Increase $28,407[10] (40th)
Gini (2022)Negative increase 36.2[11]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Increase 0.879[12]
very high (37th)
CurrencyEuro (€) (EUR)
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+3 (EEST)
Calling code+370
ISO 3166 codeLT
Internet TLD.lt

Lithuania,[a] officially the Republic of Lithuania,[b] is a country in the Baltic region of Europe.[c] It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian semi-exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest, with a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), with a population of 2.88 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius. Other major cities are Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys. Lithuanians belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Lithuanian.

For millennia, the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, Lithuanian lands were united for the first time by Mindaugas, who formed the Kingdom of Lithuania on 6 July 1253. Subsequent expansion and consolidation resulted in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which by the 14th century was the largest country in Europe.[22]

In 1386, the Grand Duchy entered into a de facto personal union with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The two realms were united into the bi-confederal Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, forming one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighbouring countries gradually dismantled it between 1772 and 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.

Towards the end of World War I, Lithuania declared Independence in 1918, founding the modern Republic of Lithuania. In World War II, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany, before being reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Lithuanian armed resistance to the Soviet occupation lasted until the early 1950s.

On 11 March 1990, a year before the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to break away when it proclaimed the restoration of its independence.[23]

Lithuania is a developed country with a high income, advanced economy, ranking 37th in the Human Development Index (HDI) and 19th in the World Happiness Report.[24] Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the eurozone, the Nordic Investment Bank, the Schengen Agreement, NATO, and OECD. It also participates in the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) regional co-operation format.

  1. ^ "Lithuania's Constitution of 1992 with Amendments through 2019" (PDF). Constitute Project. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  2. ^ "Rodiklių duomenų bazė - Oficialiosios statistikos portalas". osp.stat.gov.lt.
  3. ^ "Population by religious community indicated, municipalities (2021)" (in Lithuanian). Statistics Lithuania. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  4. ^ Kulikauskienė, Lina (2002). Lietuvos Respublikos Konstitucija [The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania] (in Lithuanian). Native History, CD. ISBN 978-9986-9216-7-7.
  5. ^ Veser, Ernst (23 September 1997). "Semi-Presidentialism-Duverger's Concept – A New Political System Model" (PDF) (in English and Chinese). Department of Education, School of Education, University of Cologne. pp. 39–60. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2017. Duhamel has developed the approach further: He stresses that the French construction does not correspond to either parliamentary or the presidential form of government, and then develops the distinction of 'système politique' and 'régime constitutionnel'. While the former comprises the exercise of power that results from the dominant institutional practice, the latter is the totality of the rules for the dominant institutional practice of the power. In this way, France appears as 'presidentialist system' endowed with a 'semi-presidential regime' (1983: 587). By this standard he recognizes Duverger's pléiade as semi-presidential regimes, as well as Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania (1993: 87).
  6. ^ Shugart, Matthew Søberg (September 2005). "Semi-Presidential Systems: Dual Executive and Mixed Authority Patterns" (PDF). Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. United States: University of California, San Diego. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  7. ^ Shugart, Matthew Søberg (December 2005). "Semi-Presidential Systems: Dual Executive And Mixed Authority Patterns". French Politics. 3 (3). Palgrave Macmillan Journals: 323–351. doi:10.1057/palgrave.fp.8200087. ISSN 1476-3419. A pattern similar to the French case of compatible majorities alternating with periods of cohabitation emerged in Lithuania, where Talat-Kelpsa (2001) notes that the ability of the Lithuanian president to influence government formation and policy declined abruptly when he lost the sympathetic majority in parliament.
  8. ^ "Surface water and surface water change". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  9. ^ "Pradžia – Oficialiosios statistikos portalas". osp.stat.gov.lt. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2024 Edition. (Lithuania)". International Monetary Fund. 10 April 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  11. ^ "Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income". Eurostat. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  12. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  13. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15253-2.
  14. ^ "United Nations Statistics Division- Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications (M49)-Geographic Regions". Unstats.un.org. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  15. ^ "Lithuania - EU Vocabularies - Publications Office of the EU". op.europa.eu. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  16. ^ "Lithuania". Europe Direct Strasbourg. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  17. ^ Lehmann, Alex (29 December 2014). "Lithuania joins the Eurozone". European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  18. ^ Lagassé, Paul; Columbia University, eds. (2000). The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-7876-5015-5
  19. ^ "Lithuania". CIA World Factbook. 22 September 2021. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  20. ^ "Lithuania". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 3 July 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  21. ^ Bershidsky, Leonid (10 January 2017). "Why the Baltics Want to Move to Another Part of Europe". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 17 October 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  22. ^ Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (1998). A history of Eastern Europe: crisis and change. Routledge. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-415-16111-4.
  23. ^ "Lithuania breaks away from the Soviet Union". The Guardian. London. 12 March 1990. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2018. Lithuania last night became the first republic to break away from the Soviet Union, by proclaiming the restoration of its pre-war independence. The newly-elected parliament, 'reflecting the people's will,' decreed the restoration of 'the sovereign rights of the Lithuanian state, infringed by alien forces in 1940,' and declared that from that moment Lithuania was again an independent state
  24. ^ Fernandez, Celia (23 March 2024). "This is the happiest country for Gen Z and millennials, according to The World Happiness Report". CNBC. Archived from the original on 5 May 2024. Retrieved 5 May 2024.


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