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…
Estonia’s liberal coalition party, Estonia 200 (E200), will not merge with the small non-parliamentary party, Estonian Greens (EER), ERR reports. E200’s council met to discuss the issue on 18 October 2026. E200 chief spokesman Johannes Merilai said that a merger would add nothing to E200’s core identity. Also, he noted that EER’s policies differed from…
Estonians are markedly more active physically than Latvians and Lithuanians, according to Eurostat statistics, LSM reports. The data showed that 73.2% of Estonians aged 16 years or older engaged in physical activity outside work at least once a week in 2025, which was down from 82.4% in 2022. By comparison, a mere 52.3% (47.7%) of…
Estonia’s major political parties will spend around EUR 1-2mn in campaigning ahead of the parliamentary elections in March 2027, ERR reports. Andres Metsoja, general secretary of the conservative opposition party, Fatherland, estimated that his party would spend around EUR 2mn in campaigning. Õnne Pillak, chairperson of the parliamentary group of the ruling Estonian Reform Party,…
The number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments in the Baltic States rose in 2025, according to Eurostat, LSM reports. However, the increase was due to foreign tourists, the data showed. Nights spent at hotels and other short-term accommodation establishments in Lithuania totalled 9.436 million in 2025, which was up 9.2% from 8.640 million…
