🌐 Estonia's Population: A Snapshot for 2024
- Share708
- Tweet
Estonia's nativity rates experiencing historic lows.
Estonia welcomed 1,366,491 souls on New Year's Day, 2024, as reported by Statistics Estonia. That's a modest increase of 607 people over the previous year, bucking the downward trend observed in recent times. The tiny nation's population growth is primarily attributed to immigration, as birth rates plummeted to their lowest in a century.
In 2023, the nation registered 10,721 births and a heart-wrenching 15,832 deaths. Moreover, 20,209 individuals migrated to Estonia, while 14,491 left for other shores. Compared to the numbers from the year prior, births, deaths, and immigrants saw a decline, while emigrants increased.
Terje Trasberg, a senior analyst at Statistics Estonia, commented on the grim baby count, as 2023 mirrored 2022's record low birth number. Trasberg stated that the current generation of childbearers predominantly hails from the 1990s, but the decline exceeds the rate suggested by women leaving childbearing age.
Economic uncertainty and the rise in the cost of living, exacerbated by the global landscape, have forced families to put off starting a family. The easing of the pandemic has not shown a favorable impact on birth numbers, with neighboring countries like Latvia and Finland also reporting a centennial low in births for 2023.
Though the average annual death count before the pandemic was 15,545, both 2021 and 2022 registered deaths well above this average. 2023 witnessed a return to pre-pandemic mortality levels, with an estimated 15,832 deaths.
Looking at migration figures from 2023, 20,209 individuals immigrated to Estonia and 14,491 emigrated, resulting in net migration of 5,718 individuals. Approximately half of the newcomers, or 57%, hailed from Ukraine, marking a significant decrease from the previous year. Despite the drop, the number of Ukrainian immigrants is still substantially higher than before the full-scale war, with 747 individuals immigrating with Russian citizenship.
Statistics Estonia acknowledges that the current migration data is subject to revision, as the preliminary figures are based on the population register, which can often miss changes in people's citizenship status. Fully revised data is scheduled for release in May.
People from various countries, including Estonia, are actively seeking ways to improve their health-and-wellness, driven by science and advancements in health care. In the face of economic uncertainties and rising living costs, many Estonians are postponing starting families, contributing to a declining birth rate in the nation.
