Population
Statistical activity code: 30101
Geographic, demographic, socio-economic and ethno-cultural characteristics. | |
Classification of Estonian administrative units and settlements (EHAK) International Standard Codes for the Representation of the Names of Countries (ISO 3166) Classification of Ethnicities 2013 Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages (ISO 639-2) International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011) Country of Citizenship List (KOD) | |
Not applicable | |
Administrative unit – a unit based on administrative division, the name, type and boundaries of which are determined by law and other legislation, and in the territory of which state or local government administration is carried out. The administrative units of the territory of Estonia are counties, rural municipalities and cities. Age – the age of the person concerned in full years at the time of the event, i.e. the age at last birthday. The age of children under 1 year of age is 0 years. Citizenship – a permanent legal relationship between a person and the country that he or she is a citizen of. City settlement region – a settlement where most inhabitants live in regions where population density is greater than 1,000 inhabitants per km2 and the population figure in a cluster of this density is greater than 5,000. Grid map data have been used for determining regions based on population density and figure. Country of permanent residence – the country where a person has continuously lived for at least 12 months, or the country where the person intends to live for at least 12 months. Educational attainment –the highest level of education that a person has completed. Highest educational attainment is presented in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011). Ethnic nationality – a person's belonging to an ethnic group based on self-determination of the person. A child’s ethnic nationality is determined by the parents; if a child’s (aged 0–17) ethnic nationality is not available in the population register, the mother’s ethnic nationality is assigned to the child. Mean annual population – arithmetic mean of the population number at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year (beginning of the next year), rounded to a whole number. Used in the calculation of rates associated with vital events during a year. Origin – the division of Estonia's populace into native and foreign-origin population. Native population are permanent residents of Estonia with at least one parent and at least one grandparent born in Estonia. Foreign-origin population consists of permanent residents of Estonia who do not belong to the native population. Foreign-origin population, in turn, has been divided into the first, second and third generation according to the country of birth of the person, his/her parents and/or grandparents: first generation – permanent residents of Estonia who and whose parents were born abroad; second generation – permanent residents of Estonia who were born in Estonia but whose parents were born abroad; third generation – permanent residents of Estonia with at least one parent born in Estonia, but all grandparents born abroad. Place of residence – the area or settlement where the person lives permanently or most of the time. Until 2015, place of residence was defined by the person’s statement or the population register (depending on the survey methodology), whereas starting from 2015, only the place of residence recorded in the population register was used, and from 2022 onwards, place of residence is defined using the methodology of the partnership and location index (see Implementation of the partnership and location index in demographic statistics) Rural settlements – small towns and villages. Used in the tables that follow the administrative division prior to the 2017 administrative reform. Rural settlement region – a settlement where population density is lower than 200 inhabitants per km2 or a region with higher population density where the population figure is under 5,000. Settlement region – a territorial unit consisting of settlements with the same population density. Settlement regions are divided into city settlement regions, town settlement regions and rural settlement regions based on population density and population figure. In the case of a division into two, city and town settlement regions are added. The division is applied since 2018. The data for the years back to 2015 have been recalculated (see more Methodology for establishing city, town and rural settlement region types and clusters) Settlement unit – rural municipalities and cities are divided into settlement units. Settlement units are settlements which are cities, villages, towns and small towns. Town settlement region – a settlement where most inhabitants live in regions where population density is 200–1,000 inhabitants per km2 and the population figure in a cluster of this density is greater than 5,000, but it does not constitute a city settlement region. Grid map data have been used for determining regions based on population density and figure. Urban settlements – cities, cities without municipal status and towns. Used in the tables that follow the administrative division prior to the 2017 administrative reform. | |
Person | |
Residents of Estonia, including Estonian citizens and foreigners who live in Estonia FRAME An extended population and administrative registers | |
A person's place of residence at the level of dwelling | |
1919–… | |
Not applicable |
DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACTS Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on European demographic statistics (Text with EEA relevance) Regulation (EU) No 205/2014 of 4 March 2014 laying down uniformed conditions for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council on European demographic statistics, as regards breakdowns of data, deadlines and data revisions OTHER LEGAL ACTS Not available OTHER AGREEMENTS Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) World Health Organization (WHO) United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) |
The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 32, § 34, § 35, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. | |
The dissemination of data collected for the production of official statistics is based on the requirements laid down in §§ 34 and 35 of the Official Statistics Act. The principles for treatment of confidential data can be found here. |
Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. Every year on 1 October, the release times of the statistical database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications for the following year are announced in the release calendar (in the case of publications – the release month). | |
All users have been granted equal access to official statistics: dissemination dates of official statistics are announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) is provided access to official statistics before other users. Official statistics are first published in the statistical database. If there is also a news release, it is published simultaneously with data in the statistical database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8:00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar. |
The news release “Preliminary population” is published in January, the news release “Revised population” in May. The news release can be viewed on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section News. | |
Not published | |
Data are published in the statistical database at https://andmed.stat.ee/en/stat in the tables RV045–RV06U of the subject area “Population / Population indicators and composition / Main demographic indicators” and in the tables RV021–RV088 of the subject area “Population / Population indicators and composition / Population figure and composition”. Discontinued datasets RV02111–RV092 are in the subject area “Discontinued datasets / Population. Archive / Population indicators and composition. Archive”. | |
The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia’s procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes. | |
Data serve as input for statistical activities 30201 “Vital events. Marriages”, 30202 “Vital events. Divorces”, 30203 “Vital events. Spontaneous and induced abortions”, 30204 “Vital events. Migration“, 30205 “Vital events. Deaths and causes of death”, 30206 “Vital events. Births”, 41001 “Social exclusion – Laeken indicators”, 50101 “Regional development” and 50201 “Sustainable development indicators”. | |
Implementation of the residency index in demographic statistics Implementation of the partnership and location index in demographic statistics Mathematical formulas in population statistics Methodology for establishing city, town and rural settlement region types and clusters | |
Not available |
To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the EFQM Excellence Model, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the requirements in § 7. “Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act. | |
Statistics Estonia performs all statistical activities according to an international model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process; this information can take many forms, including feedback from users, process metadata, system metrics and suggestions from employees. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality problems related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions. |
Ministry of Social Affairs Ministry of Education and Research Ministry of the Interior Estonian Institute for Population Studies University of Tartu | |
Since 1996, Statistics Estonia has conducted reputation and user satisfaction surveys. All results are available on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section User surveys. | |
In compliance with the rules (regulations) |
The preliminary population figure is published at the latest 23 days after the end of the reference year (T + 23), the revised and mean annual population and some sections 140 days after the end of the reference year (T + 140). The revised population by all sections are published 250 days after the end of the reference year (T + 250). | |
The data have been published at the time announced in the release calendar. |
Population data by counties have been published since 1990. The county borders have changed twice. The data indicate this in the years 1999–2000, when Lääne-Viru county increased and Järva county decreased. The change actually took place in 2005, but in the process of recalculations made between the censuses, it shifted to the census year – 2000. Another change was connected with the administrative reform of 2017, when the borders of most counties changed. Recalculations according to the new administrative division have been made to the population numbers as at 01.01.2015 (2015 data are calculated using index-based methodology, earlier data are based on REL 2011 and on event statistics). Municipal population figures have been published in current statistics since 2000. Changes in municipal borders in 2000–2011 were recalculated based on the borders at the time of the census because the interim period data were recalculated. Since 2012, the statistics of the merged municipalities are not comparable, because if the name of the municipality did not change, the data series of this municipality continued in the database. In order to deal with these changes, an overview of EHAK (Classification of Estonian administrative units and settlements) should be used. As of 2015, all data have been recalculated as of the new administrative reform of 2017. Another important event in terms of geographical comparability is the transition of methodology in 2015 from the place of residence indicated in the census to the use of population register based place of residence. Starting from year 2022 place of residence is calculated using index based approach, where the residence address(es) reported in various national registers and the locations related to everyday activities (school, kindergarten, workplace, etc.) are used to determine the place of residence with which a person and his or her family members have been most closely associated in the year preceding the reference date. | |
Before 2012, population statistics was based on the population census, and births, deaths and changes of residence (migration) were added each year between the censuses. After the next census, the intermediate years’ data were recalculated according to reality. Since the 2000 population census, the population census data have been supplemented by under-coverage—the recalculations yielded the revised number of population on 1 January 2000, which was by 31,200 bigger than the number of persons enumerated. As this was only done after the 2011 census and the previous period (1989–1999) has not been recalculated, the data show a leap compared to 1999 and 2000. The population of 2012 is the population of the 2012 census, which has been supplemented by 30,760 persons due to the under-coverage. Starting from 01 January 2012, population statistics is based on persons: only the events (birth, death and change of residence) of Estonian permanent residents will be added to the population statistics at the beginning of the year. Starting from 01 January 2015, Statistics Estonia has conducted population analyses based on a new method, i.e. residency index. The transition indicated that according to the new methodology, there were 1599 more people living in Estonia at the time and the population therefore increased slightly. This was not due to the events of one year, but these persons had migrated to Estonia after the census. | |
Information about all vital events is collected on the same basis, so a cross-sectoral analysis is possible. | |
Not applicable |
The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described in the section Principles of dissemination of official statistics of the website of Statistics Estonia. | |
The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, errors are discovered, new or better data become available. |
SURVEY DATA Not used ADMINISTRATIVE DATA Population register and other Estonian administrative registers DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES Not used | |
Annual | |
Administrative data are received via X-Road, an FTP-server and by e-mail. | |
The data are compared with the data of previous periods. | |
The population is formed at person level, applying a specific method (residence index) to data in various registers. The residence index is used to find the probability of living in Estonia for each person. The features necessary to identify each person are found by using the different registers in a specific priority order. | |
Not applied |