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“People’s consumption habits change, technology evolves, and more and more data become available. Statistics Estonia must keep up with these developments, and we must continuously update our methodologies,” explained Urmet Lee, the Director General of Statistics Estonia. The methodological changes introduced in January concern food products and electricity. “Good cooperation with electricity providers and retail chains now allows us to calculate the consumer price index in Estonia more accurately than ever before. It means that a quarter of the data for the consumer basket are now obtained

Today’s news release on the dwelling price index used the wrong data as the reference prices by mistake, which was due to problems in the analysis software. The data have now been corrected. We apologise! The revised data are shown in red, and the graph has been updated to show the correct data for the most recent quarter. Lii Kruusla, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that, in the first quarter of 2026, apartment prices went up by 1.6 % and the prices of houses by 7.1 % compared with the previous quarter. “When compared with the fourth quarter of last year, the biggest rise occurred in the

“In the third quarter of this year, the percentage change in wages and salaries remained at the same level as in the previous quarter. However, in the third quarter of 2024, wage growth was 8.1%, which means that the year-on-year growth in wages and salaries slowed down,” said Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia. She added that, in the second quarter, employees usually receive more bonuses (such as holiday pay), which is why the average wages and salaries in the third quarter are typically lower than in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the average monthly gross wages and

Lauri Veski, the Consumer Price Statistics Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, explained that inflation – i.e. the year-on-year increase in the consumer price index – has shown gradual decline in recent months. “With the exception of November 2025, inflation has been in decline since September last year,” he noted. The rise in the consumer price index in February year on year was primarily influenced by the increases in the prices of food products (5.5%), health products and services (12%), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (7.9%) and housing (1.5%). Electricity prices remained high in

Ülo Paulus, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period in 2024, the construction price index was primarily influenced by the 2.9% increase in employees’ wages, which accounted for 54% of the index change. “Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, labour force was 0.6% more expensive and the cost of using building machines rose by 0.3%, while the prices of building materials were down by 0.2%,” explained Paulus. The repair and reconstruction work price index decreased by 0.5% compared with the fourth quarter of 2024

Lauri Veski, the Consumer Price Statistics Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that the last time that the year-on-year increase in the consumer price index was at a similar level was a year ago, in January 2025, when the consumer price index rose by 3.9%. “The rise in the consumer price index for January 2026 compared with December was primarily influenced by electricity, food and alcoholic beverages. The exchange prices of electricity soared in January, so that the electricity price index was up by 22.2% compared with December. Food prices were up by 2.3% in January, with 11.1% more

Tiina Pärson, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that internet use is a common practice among younger and middle-aged people (16–54-year-olds), with almost 100% of them using the internet. Internet use has increased significantly among the elderly. For example, compared with last year, internet use has risen by five percentage points in the 55–64 age group and by six percentage points among 65–74-year-olds. Compared with 2020, the increase has been even greater, at 11 percentage points among people aged 55–64 and 20 percentage points among people aged 65–74. “One key factor is the

Jane Leppmets, analyst at Statistics Estonia, noted that, compared with 2024, exports of services to European Union countries increased by 4% in the first quarter of this year, while imports from these countries grew by 8%. Exports of services to non-EU countries rose by 6% and imports from these countries increased by 18%. “The latter was mainly due to higher imports of services from Cyprus, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the first quarter, the largest import items were other business services from Cyprus, transport services from the United Kingdom, and telecommunications

Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia, explained that the gender pay gap was over 20% in five economic activities: financial and insurance activities (25.5%), information and communication (24.4%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (23.5%), human health and social work activities (20.7%), and manufacturing (20.2%). Compared with 2023, the gender pay gap in other service activities changed the most, from −18.4% in 2023 to 14.8% in 2024. Last year, the gender pay gap was negative only in one activity – transportation and storage (−7.1%). “It means that

Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia, noted that Statistics Estonia uses the data of the employment register of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board to estimate the number of occupied posts and labour turnover. Data on job vacancies, however, are collected by Statistics Estonia using a questionnaire. Vacant posts accounted for 1.7% of the total number of posts The total number of vacant and occupied posts in the second quarter was 595,760. The number of vacant posts was the highest in education (1,782) and in wholesale and retail trade (incl. repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles)