Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by
the Gulf of Finland,
to the west by the Baltic Sea,
to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to
the east by Lake Peipus and
Russia (338.6 km). Across the Baltic
Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of
Estonia covers 45,227 km2 (17,462 sq mi), and is influenced by a humid
continental climate. The Estonians are a Finnic people, and the
official language, Estonian, is a Finno-Ugric
language closely related to Finnish, and distantly to Hungarian and to
the Sami
languages.
Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into
fifteen counties, with its capital and largest city
being Tallinn. Estonia's population of
1.3 million makes it one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A developed country
with an advanced, high-income economy, Estonia has the highest gross domestic
product per person among the former Soviet republics, and is a member of
the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development.Estonia ranks high in the Human Development Index, and subsequently performs favourably in measurements of press freedom (third in the world in 2012), economic freedom, civil liberties and education. Estonia is often described as one of the most wired countries in Europe, and is recognised as a leader in e-government.
