Estonia

Estonia is a country in the north of Europe.

The Baltic Sea is on two sides. Estonia has lots of forests and lakes. It has many, many islands. The capital city is Tallinn.

Estonia is a country in northeastern Europe, the farthest north of the three Baltic states. The Baltic Sea wraps around it on the north and west. Russia lies to the east and Latvia to the south.

Estonia is small and low, with forests, lakes, rivers and wetlands. About 1,500 islands and islets belong to it, and the two biggest, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, lie off the west coast. Tallinn is the capital. About 1.36 million people lived in Estonia at the start of 2026.

Estonia occupies about 45,300 square kilometers on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which bounds it to the north and west. Its eastern border with Russia follows mostly the Narva River and Lakes Peipus, Tyoploye and Pskov; Latvia lies to the south. Some 1,500 islands and islets are part of its territory, the largest being Saaremaa and Hiiumaa.

Statistics Estonia counted 1,360,745 residents on 1 January 2026: 68.5 percent were ethnically Estonian and 20.2 percent Russian. Britannica notes that more than two-thirds of the population is urban. Tallinn, the capital, faces Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland, and Tartu is the second-largest city.

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia.

Its Old Town has narrow, winding streets. Tall church spires point at the sky. Old lighthouses stand by the sea to help ships.

Tallinn's Old Town is a World Heritage Site. It grew in the 1200s to 1500s as a busy trading city of the Hanseatic League, a big group of merchant towns around the Baltic. Its narrow, winding streets still have their old names, and a town wall, a Town Hall and merchants' houses survive.

On the island of Hiiumaa, the Kõpu Lighthouse stands on a hill in a forest. It was first built as a beacon, a tower for ships to see by day, and it was finished in 1531. Keri Lighthouse stands on a small, bare island in the Gulf of Finland.

UNESCO inscribed the Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn in 1997 as an exceptionally complete and well-preserved medieval northern European trading city. Its origins date to the 13th century, when a castle was built by knights of the Teutonic Order, and it became a significant center of the Hanseatic League in the 13th to 16th centuries. The upper town on the limestone hill of Toompea, with the castle and cathedral, has long been the administrative center; the lower town keeps narrow winding streets, a town wall, Town Hall and merchants' houses, and building plots that survive almost intact from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Kõpu Lighthouse on Hiiumaa took 26 years to build, interrupted by war and plague, and was completed in 1531 as an unlit beacon of granite and limestone; it became a lighthouse in 1649. The Estonian Maritime Administration calls it the third-oldest operating lighthouse in the world. Keri Lighthouse, on an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Finland, had its first wooden tower in 1724; its present metal tower dates from 1858.

Long ago, thick ice covered Estonia.

The ice left small hills and lots of lakes. Forests cover almost half of the land. The tallest hill is called Great Egg Hill.

Estonia's land was shaped by glaciers, huge sheets of ice. They left hills of rock and soil in the south, long flat-topped hills in the middle and long, narrow ridges in the north, made by rivers of meltwater. The land is low: on average just 50 meters above the sea. The highest point, Suur Munamägi (Great Egg Hill), is 318 meters high.

Mixed forests of pine, fir, birch and aspen cover almost half the country, and there are many rivers, lakes, marshes and bogs. January averages -8 to -5 °C, and July averages 16 to 17 °C.

Estonia's relief is largely glacial: moraine hills in the south, elongated flat-topped hills in the center, and in the north long narrow ridges of deposits left by meltwater rivers, with sandy areas marking the former ice edge. The mean elevation is 50 m, only about a tenth of the land lies above 90 m, and the highest point is Suur Munamägi (Great Egg Hill) in the Haanja Upland, which Britannica gives as 318 m.

Atlantic air masses bring warm air in winter and cool air in summer; the coasts are milder and the southeast more continental. Mean temperatures are -8 to -5 °C in January and 16 to 17 °C in July, and annual precipitation of 600 to 700 mm, with little evaporation and low relief, leads to waterlogging. Mixed forests with about 90 native tree and shrub species cover almost half the territory, Scots pine being the most common, and a quarter of Estonia's 1,500 plant species grow in its marshes and swamps. The largest lake, Peipus (about 3,550 km²), is shared with Russia, and the longest river, the Pärnu, runs about 145 km.

Big elk live in Estonia.

Deep in the woods live bears and lynx. Foxes and otters live there too. Many birds come and go each year.

About 60 kinds of mammals live in Estonia. The biggest is the elk, the animal Americans call a moose. Roe deer, red deer and wild pigs live there too, and bears and lynx can be met in the deep forests of the northeast. Foxes, badgers, otters and hares are fairly common.

More than 300 kinds of birds have been seen in Estonia, and most of them migrate, so few stay all year. Fish such as cod, herring and salmon are important catches, and about a tenth of the country is set aside as nature reserves.

Britannica counts about 60 mammal species in Estonia. The largest is the elk (Alces alces, called moose in North America); roe deer, red deer and wild pigs also occur, and bears and lynx are found in the deep forests of the northeast. Foxes, badgers, otters, rabbits and hares are fairly common, as are mink and nutria (coypu) along riverbanks.

More than 300 bird species have been identified, but most are migratory and few live there all year. Cod, herring, salmon, eel and plaice are commercially important fish. Since independence was restored in 1991, air and water pollution have been reduced, forest cover has increased, and about one-tenth of the country is protected as nature reserves.

About 1.36 million people live in Estonia.

Many speak Estonian. Many others speak Russian. Many people love to sing together. Rye bread is a traditional food.

More than two-thirds of the people in Estonia speak Estonian as their first language, and about a quarter speak Russian first, mostly in the northeast. Most people live in towns and cities, especially Tallinn and Tartu.

Singing together is a big part of life. The first national song festival was held in Tartu in 1869, and today huge celebrations bring together thousands of singers and dancers from amateur choirs and dance groups. Traditional foods include rye bread, stews, berry jams, pickled gherkins and salt herring.

On 1 January 2026, 68.5 percent of residents were ethnically Estonian, 20.2 percent Russian and 10.8 percent of other nationalities (Statistics Estonia). Estonian, the official language, belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family; more than two-thirds speak it as a first language and about a quarter speak Russian first, mostly in the northeast. The Seto of the southeast speak a distinct dialect. There is no state religion, and many people are nonreligious; among Christians are Evangelical Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox communities.

Song and dance festivals began in the mid-19th century as an early expression of Estonian nationalism; the first national song festival was held in Tartu in 1869. UNESCO lists the Baltic Song and Dance Celebrations, held every fifth year in Estonia, which gather as many as 40,000 singers and dancers, most from amateur groups. Traditional dishes include leavened rye bread, stews, berry jams, pearl barley and salt herring, and many people cross-country ski in winter.