Estonia

Estonia

Estonia / is a country located in the Baltic Sea region in northern Europe. It is bordered on the north by the Gulf of Finland, on the west by the Baltic Sea, on the south by Latvia, and on the east by Lake Pepos and the Russian Federation

Estonia covers 45,227 square kilometers (17,462) square miles, and its seasonal climate is mild. Estonian is the only official language in the country. Estonia is a parliamentary democratic republic, divided into 15 provinces. The capital and its largest city, the capital, Tallinn. It has a population of 1,319,133 million people

It is also one of the least-developed members of the population in the European Union, the euro area, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It has the highest GDP per capita among the former Soviet republics. The Republic of Estonia has been described as a "high-income economy" by the World Bank and a "developed economy" by the International Monetary Fund, and later became a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United Nations ranks Estonia as a developed country, and the Human Development Index is very high. It also has a high level of freedom of the press, economic freedom, political freedom, and education

Although Estonia is generally poor in resources and land still provides a large variety of the smallest resources. The country has a large stock of oil shale and limestone, along with forests covering 50.6% of the land. In addition to shale and limestone, Estonia also has significant reserves of phosphorite, pitchblende, and granite that are currently not being mined, or not mined widely

Large quantities of rare earth oxides have been found in accumulated waste from 50 years of uranium ore, oil shale and mining. Due to the high prices of rare metals, the extraction of these oxides has become economically viable. The country currently exports about 3000 tons annually, which represents about 2 percent of global production

As a member of the European Union, Estonia's high-income economy is considered by the World Bank. It ranks 16th in the country in the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, with economic freedom in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Due to its rapid growth, Estonia was often described as the Baltic tiger. Beginning on January 1, 2011, Estonia adopted the euro and became a euro zone member of 17 countries

However, there are large disparities in GDP between different regions of Estonia, currently, more than half of the country's GDP is created in Tallinn, the capital and largest city. In 2008, the GDP per capita of Tallinn was 172%. Average Estonian, which makes the per capita GDP of Tallinn up to 115% of the average of the European Union, which exceeds the average levels of other provinces

The unemployment rate is about 11.7%, which is higher than the average in the European Union, while the real growth of GDP in 2011 was 8.0%, five times the average in the euro area. As of 2012, Estonia remains the only euro country with a budget surplus, with a national debt of only 6%, which is one of the least indebted countries in Europe

Estonia's climate is affected by its geographical location. It is located in the mixed forest region and is a sub-region of the continental Atlantic region which in turn belongs to the temperate regions. It also lies on a transitional region between the influence of a coastal climate and a continental climate

According to the climate classification called the Köppen classification, the western part of Estonia falls within the scope of a coastal climate with a moderate winter while the eastern part of the country falls within the scope of a continental and humid climate with a harsh winter

The climate of the interior regions and the climate of the coastal regions are varied due to the marine influences of the Baltic Sea which warm the coastal areas during the winter season and calm their atmosphere in particular during the spring season. The terrain, especially the highlands of southeast Estonia, plays an important role in the distribution and longevity of the snow cover

As a result of all these factors, the summer season is mildly hot (the average temperature during the month of July is 15-17 ° C) and the winter is mildly cold (the average temperature during the month of February is between 3.5 and 7.5- ° C). Since the annual precipitation is nearly twice the evaporation, the country's climate is extremely humid

The Estonian community has undergone major changes over the past twenty years, one of the most notable being the increasing level of classes and the distribution of family income. The Gini coefficient was steadily above the European Union (31 in 2009), although it has visibly decreased. The unemployment rate recorded in January 2012 was 7.7%

Estonia today is a multinational country where, according to the 2000 census, 109 languages ​​are spoken. 67.3% of Estonian citizens speak Estonian, (29.7%) Russian, and 3% speak other languages. As of July 2, 2010, 84.1% of the population of Estonia are Estonian citizens, 8.6% are citizens of other countries and 7.3% of “citizens with unspecified citizenship”. Since 1992 nearly 140,000 people have acquired Estonian citizenship by naturalization

The ethnic distribution in Estonia is very homogeneous, where in most provinces more than 90% of the population are ethnic Estonians. There is a greater difference in large cities such as Tallinn, Estonia, where they account for 60% of the population. The rest are mainly composed of Russians and other Slavic background residents, who arrived in Estonia during the Soviet occupation

According to surveys, only 5% of Russian society considered turning to Russia in the near future. Estonia Russians have identified their identity - more than half of those surveyed that Estonia Russians differ significantly from Russians in Russia. When comparing the result with a survey from 2000, then the Russians' attitude toward the future is more positive