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About Estonia
Estonia is a Baltic country, situated on the northeast shores of the Baltic Sea. Estonia has very close connections with the Nordic countries, especially Finland and is therefore sometimes also considered to be a Nordic country in its own right.
Estonia is conveniently located just 80km from Helsinki, is close to Sweden, Lithuania and adjoins North-Eastern Russia.
  
Some facts about Estonia
| Area: |
45,227km² of which approximately 20,000 km² is covered with forest. |
| Population: |
1,356,045 inhabitants (2003) of whom approximately 70% are Estonians. |
| Official language: |
Estonian (belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages) |
| Religion: |
predominantly Evangelical Lutheran |
| Administrative divisions: |
253 rural municipalities, 15 counties |
| Capital: |
Tallinn (population approximately 400,000) |
| An independent state since February 24, 1918 |
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| Soviet occupation: |
1940-1991 |
| Restoration of independence: |
August 20, 1991 |
| System of Government: |
Parliamentary republic |
| Currency unit: |
Euro |
| Member state of the European Union (2004) and NATO (2004) |
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| Estonia's advanced ICT infrastructure: |
- Three providers of mobile phone carrier services. Over 95% of the country is covered by the mobile network;
- Internet is accessible all over Estonia;
- 16th highest Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) penetration in the world at the endof June 2003;
- by July 2003 there were more than 760 000 Internet bank customers, over 50% of the population.
- The country's economy is known as liberal.
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