Fewer and fewer Estonians are walking or using public transport to get to work, and more and more Estonians prefer to drive to work.
Over the past 20 years, the proportion of people walking to work has fallen by almost half. The use of public transport has decreased, while commuting by car has increased, according to Statistics Estonia, the country’s official statistics agency.
Tea Vassiljeva, an analyst at Statistics Estonia, looked at the data and examined how the commuting habits of Estonians have changed in recent decades. The majority of people travel to work either on foot, by public transport or by car. Whereas 20 years ago, these three modes were more or less equal, the proportions have now changed dramatically.
Distance between home and work has increased
The share of people walking to work has dropped from 27.3 per cent to 14.6 per cent. There’s also a sharp decline in the use of public transport – 29.9 per cent of people travelled to work by public transport in 2003, whereas 17.8 per cent did so in 2023.
As the number of people walking and using public transport to work has fallen, the proportion using private cars has risen: 25 per cent of people drove their own car to work in 2003, compared to 46.9 per cent last year. Notably, the proportion of women commuting by private car has increased more than that of men over the last 20 years.
According to Statistics Estonia, the increase in car use is due to a general increase in the number of cars. In addition, the distance between work and home has increased somewhat. There has been a decrease in the proportion of people who work less than two kilometres (1.2 miles) from home and an increase in the proportion of people whose workplace is more than 10 kilometres (six miles) away.
However, the percentage of people travelling two to 10 kilometres from home to work has remained fairly stable. Overall, the average distance between work and home has increased by 3.5 kilometres.
Walking is less popular
“The proportion of people whose workplace is within two kilometres of their home has fallen from 32.2 per cent to 22.6 per cent over the last 20 years. So there is less reason to walk to work. However, in 2003, three quarters of people living within two kilometres of their workplace walked to work. By 2023, just over half did,” the agency said.
“So it is not just the distance to work, but also people’s other choices that have made walking less popular. In 2023, people commuting by foot walked an average of 1.3 kilometres to their place of work, whereas 20 years earlier their journey to work was 100 metres shorter”.
The distances travelled by public transport have also changed only slightly. Last year, the average public transport user travelled 11.1 kilometres to work, compared to 10.2 kilometres 20 years ago. The average distance travelled by car has increased by 1.7 kilometres.
“Apparently, the prevailing modes of transport 20 years ago were due to a lack of opportunities. In the last 20 years, the number of private cars has doubled, which means that their use has also increased. This reflects growing economic prosperity,” Statistics Estonia said.
