Income inequality in Latvia and Lithuania was among the highest in the EU in 2025, according to Eurostat data, LSM reported. Latvia’s Gini coefficient, which measures wealth distribution, stood at 35.6, which was up from 34.2 in 2024 and the second-highest in the entire EU. Lithuania’s Gini coefficient was the EU’s third-highest at 35.5 in…
The secretary general of the Estonian Foreign Ministry, Jonatan Vseviov, announced that he would resign and run for parliament in elections due in March 2027, ERR reports. Vseviov will represent the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDE). SDE chairman Lauri Läänemets will propose that Vseviov be nominated as the party’s candidate for prime minister. Läänemets will…
Estonia’s opposition Estonian Centre Party and Social Democratic Party (SDE) overtook the national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, in Emor’s latest monthly poll in October 2026, ERR reports. Support for the Centre Party rose to 20.6%, which was up from 16.9% in September 2026. SDE came in second with 20.4% (17.4%), followed by Fatherland with 19.4% (24.1%),…
The recycling rate for packaging waste in the Baltic States was highest in Estonia in 2024, according to Eurostat data, LSM reported. The recycling rate stood at 69.9% in Estonia, which was up from 68.5% in 2023. The rate was 66.9% (60.7%) in Lithuania and 66.3% (63.1%) in Latvia. The average rate in the EU…
Swedish telecommunications company GlobalConnect will lay a new undersea fibre-optic communications cable connecting Sweden, Estonia, and Finland, ERR reports. The cable will run from Sweden’s Gotland island to Estonia’s Saaremaa and Hiiumaa islands, through the Estonian mainland from Haapsalu to Viimsi, and then to Helsinki in Finland. The project will cost around EUR 40mn, of…
Several public institutions and agencies in the Baltic States took their websites offline on 21 October 2026 due to global critical security vulnerabilities in PHP-based applications. In Estonia, the Ministry of Education and Science shut down access to the online learning platform, Moodle, temporarily, ERR reported. Also, the National Archives of Estonia closed or limited…
The Estonian government of Prime Minister Kristen Michal has won a vote of no confidence in the country’s parliament, the Riigikogu, ERR reports. Altogether 34 out of the 101 MPs voted in favour of the motion, which was signed by the opposition Fatherland, Estonian Centre Party, and Conservative People’s Party of Estonia as well as…
Estonia had an average 38,000 people registered as unemployed in the third quarter of 2026, which was 5,600 (13%) fewer than in the same period of 2025, according to the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (Töötukassa), ERR reported. The share of the country’s working-age labour force registered as unemployed stood at 5.5%, which was down from…
The Baltic States have among the highest suicide rates in the EU, according to Eurostat, LSM reports. The data show that the number of suicides in Lithuania was 562 in 2023, which was up from 532 in 2022. Suicides totalled 270 (231) in Latvia and 199 (195) in Estonia. Lithuania’s standardised death rate for intentional…
