Migration

Open borders and the ability to choose where to live have made people more mobile. People move from city to city, to the countryside or even find a new job and home outside Estonia. How actively do Estonian people change their place of residence? How many migrants have found a new home in Estonia?

Migration statistics provide an overview of internal migration, or movement from one administrative unit to another within Estonia, and external migration, or cross-border changes of residence. Migration is a vital event that can quickly change the age and sex distribution of the population. In normal circumstances, changes in migration trends take place rather slowly, which is also the case with other demographic events.

Migration statistics include information on:

  • which settlements in Estonia people leave and where they move most often;
  • which foreign countries have been the most popular destinations for Estonian inhabitants;
  • which age groups include the most emigrants;
  • what is the extent of immigration to Estonia and which countries do migrants come from.

Migration statistics provide information on changes in the population and location of inhabitants. It is possible to observe both immigrants and emigrants by sex, age, previous and new place of residence, citizenship, country of birth and ethnic nationality.

Immigration 26,399
-46.6%
Emigration 12,543
29.9%
Net external migration 13,856
-65.1%
Net external migration by sex and age group | 2023
Immigration and emigration by citizenship | 2023
Net internal migration by county | 2023
External migration | 2014 – 2023
Immigration Emigration Net migration
2014 3,904 4,637 -733
2015 15,413 13,003 2,410
2016 14,822 13,792 1,030
2017 17,616 12,358 5,258
2018 17,547 10,476 7,071
2019 18,172 12,801 5,371
2020 16,209 12,427 3,782
2021 19,524 12,481 7,043
2022 49,414 9,657 39,757
2023 26,399 12,543 13,856

Net internal migration by type of settlement region | 2019 – 2023
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
City settlement region -3,308 -3,625 -906 -5,695 -5,349
Town settlement region 2,295 2,427 1,609 3,678 2,873
Rural settlement region 1,013 1,198 -703 2,017 2,476