In sustainable Estonia regional differences are decreasing and every region of Estonia has found a suitable way of raising their value as a place for living and working.
Balanced development of regions is one of the sub-objectives of the development strategy Sustainable Estonia 21 for achieving coherent society. The strategy Sustainable Estonia 21 defines the objective: “Internal regional differences in Estonia are decreasing, every region of Estonia has found a suitable way of raising their value as a place for living and working.” It is important to know the scope of regional sustainability as the strength and sustainability of every state depends on the viability and balanced development of its regions, also, on ecological balance of the regions and the welfare and competitiveness of the population of these regions.
When comparing the counties it must be kept in mind that most of the values of the indicators provided in the dashboard are based on the data collected a year or two ago. It was the period of economic increase and it seemed that there were no limits to growth. The world crisis of the year 2008 hit Estonia with a small delay but it hit more painfully than expected. Today the value of a number of economic indicators such as GDP per capita, unemployment and health indicators reflecting stress presented in the dashboard is significantly lower than that in the dashboard. It is important how Estonia and the regions are able to cope with the situation and come out of the crisis. The regions accumulating resources and investing in assets, technology and human resources and the development of the knowledge, skills and experience of the human resources in the period of economic growth are more competitive. Hopefully the employment rate remains high in sustainable regions and states even at the time of crisis.
If to take account all indicators (coherent society, growth of welfare, viability of cultural space, ecological balance) then in terms of total value of the indicators the ranking of the counties is diverse. Harju county comes first, followed by Saare and Tartu county. Ida-Viru county ranks last in the comparison of the Estonian counties.
In terms of social cohesion Saare, Hiiu and Järva county are the best. In the red end of the dashboard we can find Ida-Viru county.
In terms of economic growth Harju county ranks first as most of its economic indicators were the best in Estonia. It is understandable because most enterprises and workplaces are concentrated in Tallinn and Harju county. At the same time, the value of the indicator reflecting mortality of cardiovascular diseases is the highest in Harju county. In terms of economic indicators the second and third best counties are Tartu and Saare county, respectively. Põlva county together with Ida-Viru and Järva county are among the last three counties. Most economic indicators of Järva county are red in the dashboard.
However, the high level of the value of the indicators of economic growth has not ensured sustainability of Harju county as a whole. In terms of ecological indicators Harju and Ida-Viru county rank among the last two counties. It reflects multidimensional scale of sustainability: economic growth cannot ensure general welfare when there are major deficiencies in other areas. Mining of oil-shale and production of electricity from oil-shale concentrated in Ida-Viru county have got a negative impact on ecological balance of Ida-Viru county. Therefore, the value of the indicators of the use of natural resources and air pollution is the worst in Ida-Viru county. The values of the indicators reflecting ecological balance are the best in Saare county because of low environmental load and availability of wild nature in the county.
In terms of viability of cultural space Harju, Tartu, Hiiu and Saare county are the most sustainable. Cultural area also includes demographic indicators because according to the Estonian Sustainable Development Strategy viability of cultural space depends on the carriers of culture. Crude death rate is the lowest in Harju county and the highest in Ida-Viru county.
The indicators reflecting the use of the Estonian language contribute to defining clearly the specific features of Estonian counties. The share of the population using Estonian as a foreign language is the biggest in Ida-Viru county. Only 18% of the population speaks Estonian as their mother tongue there. In Ida-Viru county only 22% of the population speaking a foreign language could speak Estonian, whereas in Harju county the respective figure was twice as big (45%). The share of people who could speak Estonian in the population speaking a foreign language was the biggest in Viljandi (75%). The share of cultural employees in total employment was the biggest in Harju county, in terms of visits to the museums Harju county was in the middle position among the counties. The number of visits to the museums was the biggest in the islands and Lääne-Viru county, the smallest in Rapla, Ida-Viru and Võru county. The value of the indicators of Estonian cultural space was the lowest in Ida-Viru county where most of the indices in the dashboard were red.
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