According to Statistics Estonia, on 1 January 2025, the population of Estonia stood at 1,369,995 with the population having declined by almost 5,000 people; there were 9,690 births and 15,756 deaths in Estonia last year.
Terje Trasberg, a team lead of population and education statistics at Statistics Estonia, the country’s official statistics agency, said 18,634 people immigrated to Estonia and 17,260 people emigrated in 2024.
“Last year, natural increase was negative (–6,066 people), while net migration was positive (+1,374 people). As the negative natural increase deepened compared with previous years, the positive net migration could no longer compensate for it. Therefore, the population fell by almost 5,000 people last year,” she said, adding that the last time Estonia’s population declined was in 2016.
For the first time in the history of Estonian population statistics, which dates back to 1919, the number of births last year was below 10,000. Compared with a year earlier, births were down by 11.5% (10,949 in 2023).
“The average age of women giving birth continues to rise. Compared with 10 years ago, the age of first-time mothers has increased by more than two years and now stands at 28.9 years. This is one year lower than the EU average,” Trasberg said.
Net migration lowest since 2016
There were 15,800 deaths in 2024, which is similar to both 2023 and the pre-pandemic period. The three-year decline in the number of births continued in 2024, and deepened further in the last year, leading to a new negative birth rate record.
Last year, 18,634 people migrated to Estonia and 17,260 people left. Net migration was 1,374, the lowest since 2016.
“The number of immigrants is comparable to that of the period before the war in Ukraine and before the COVID-19 pandemic, while the number of emigrants, affected among other things by the emigration of Ukrainians, is the highest in the last decade,” Trasberg noted, adding that emigration last year exceeded the average of the last 10 years by 5,000 people.
Last year, 5,218 Estonian citizens arrived in the country and 6,472 left, ie there were 1,254 fewer arrivals than departures. Altogether, 7,013 Ukrainian citizens arrived in Estonia (13,082 in 2023 and 33,217 in 2022), whereas 3,829 departed.
Four fifths of the population are Estonian citizens
“Compared with a year earlier, there were half as many Ukrainian citizens arriving in Estonia in 2024 and nearly five times fewer than in 2022. However, emigration of Ukrainian citizens increased. Immigration of Russian citizens fell markedly last year. Their net migration was negative again after two decades, ie there were almost twice as many Russian citizens leaving Estonia as there were arriving,” the analyst said.
Eighty-two per cent (1,123,000) of Estonia’s population are of Estonian citizenship, 6% of Russian citizenship, 5% of Ukrainian citizenship, 4% of undetermined citizenship and 3% of citizenship of some other country.
The number of people of Estonian ethnic nationality increased by almost 3,000, and ethnic Estonians account for 68% (935,000) of the total population. The number of ethnic Russians fell by more than 10,000.
Estonian is spoken as a native language by 65% (893,000) of the population. Of Estonian citizens, 83% consider themselves ethnic Estonians and 79% speak Estonian as their native language.
