Abstract

The paper presents some results of the census 2011 with the aim to highlight recent trends in the development of the Estonian population. During the period 1989–2011 population size decreased by 17%, the reasons being emigration of non-Estonians in 1989–1990, negative natural increase and negative net migration during the whole period. Estonian’s share in the population increased during the study period from 61.5% to 69.7%. There are a few positive trends in the development of Estonian population, too: during the last 11 years life expectancy increased more than 5 years, natural increase tended to zero and infant mortality reached a level that is better than the EU average.