Estonia’s population is smaller but richer and healthier now than it was at the restoration of the country’s independence in 1991, according to Statistics Estonia’s data, ERR reports. Estonia’s population totalled 1,360,745 people in the beginning of 2026, which was down 13.2% from 1,567,749 in 1991. Native Estonian-speakers now account for 68.5% of Estonia’s population, which is up from 61.6% in 1991. However, the country’s native population is now smaller than it was before World War II, according to a Tallinn University study, ERR reported. Estonia did not have a post-war baby boom, largely due to mass Soviet repression, the study showed.
Overall life expectancy in Estonia has risen by over 10 years from 69.6 years in 1991 to 79.8 years in 2025, according to Statistics Estonia. The number of live births has dropped by 52.4% from 19,413 in 1991 to 10,173 in 2025, while the number of deaths has dropped from 19,715 to 15,688 over the same period. Meanwhile, the monthly gross average wage in Estonia has risen by nearly 60 times from just EUR 35 in 1992 to EUR 2,092 in 2025. The number of active companies has risen by almost 7 times from 23,732 in 1995 to 159,747 in 2024. The average number of employees per company has dropped from 18 in 1995 to just 3 people in 2024.