Estonia, country in northeastern Europe, the northernmost of the three Baltic states. Estonia’s area includes some 1,500 islands and islets; the two largest of these islands, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, are off mainland Estonia’s west coast.

Population: 1,317,000

Area: 45.339 km²

Currency: Euro (€)

Compared with other European countries, Estonia has a large percentage of foreign-born residents and their children. Only about two-thirds of the population are ethnic Estonians. Russians are the most significant minority, comprising about one-fourth of the citizenry. Prominent among other ethnic minorities are Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Finns. There are some regional linguistic and cultural differences among the ethnic Estonians; notably, the Seto people in southeastern Estonia speak a distinct dialect of Estonian and are part of an Eastern Orthodox religious tradition, while the islanders of the Muhu archipelago in the west also have their own dialect and share a number of cultural affinities with the people of Scandinavia.