In this article, you can find some general and interesting information about Estonia as a country, along with key resources and websites that offer deeper insights into its business environment and world-leading digital governance. We also cover some essential facts and trusted sources that help you or your business partners better understand Estonia’s business landscape and how e-Residency can support your business.
General information about Estonia
Estonia, officially known as the Republic of Estonia, is situated in Northern Europe along the coast of the Baltic Sea, and has approximately 1.3 million inhabitants. The capital city, Tallinn, lies only about 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Helsinki, across the Gulf of Finland. In geographic terms, Tallinn is located at the 59th latitude, which is where the name of the annual tech, startup and innovation conference Latitude59 comes from. The biggest cities in Estonia by population are Tallinn (~400,000 people), Tartu (~100,000 people) and Narva (~70,000 people).
The official language is Estonian, which is a Finno-Ugric language closely related to Finnish and Hungarian. However, most Estonians are fluent in English and almost all Estonian public services and legislation, especially those related to business, are fully available in English.
The territory of Estonia covers 45 thousand square kilometers (17 thousand square miles). Estonia is a lowland country with an average elevation of about 50 meters (160 feet). About 50% of Estonia is covered in forests. A considerable part of Estonia is wetlands, which are often protected areas kept untouched by human activity.
More information
- You can find much more information about Estonian nature as well as culture on the home page of Visit Estonia.
- For information about Estonia in general, as well as useful and interesting stories, facts and stats, please check out Estonia.ee.
International cooperation
Estonia has been a member of the EU and in the Eurozone since 2011. Estonia is also a member of NATO, the OECD, Council of Europe, WTO, the Schengen Area, and many more international organisations. You can find out more about Estonia’s international cooperation on the home page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
e-Estonia - innovation and the business environment
Despite its relative smallness, Estonia has 10 unicorns, such as Skype, Bolt, Wise and Pipedrive, holding the record of most unicorns per capita. Estonia also holds the world record for the fastest time to set up a company virtually - 15 minutes and 33 seconds.
Estonia continues to be a frontrunner in digital innovation and e-governance since the late 1990s. Learn more about the history and the story of the creation of a digital society on the home page of the e-Estonia Briefing Centre. If you are interested in the story about the creation of the e-Residency programme, please visit the e-Residency website.
Estonia is the leading country in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of attracting foreign direct investment. Estonia is within a 3-hour flight from most major European cities. Overall, the business climate in Estonia is led by free business and trade in alignment with EU practices. Many companies are subsidiaries of European, particularly Scandinavian, firms. Estonia has some of the highest credit ratings in the region.
Useful links, databases and more
E-residents have access to a wide variety of statistical data and research, showcasing the transparency and free access to information of the digital state. This includes:
- Programmes focused on particular aspects of business, work and life in Estonia that can help you with finding the contacts, tools and information you need.
- Databases, repositories and other publicly available sources you can use to get detailed information about the Estonian economy, business, growth and much more.
Programmes and initiatives in Estonia
Estonia has set up several programmes specific to particular aspects of developing the business ecosystem, focusing on investing, startups, etc. Here are some which focus on particular aspects of business, work and life in Estonia.
| Estonian Business and Innovation Agency programmes | |
| Invest Estonia | Invest Estonia helps foreign investors grow their businesses and improve their competitiveness. Their team also helps create conditions for sustainable development in the Estonian economy. |
| Startup Estonia | Startup Estonia is a governmental initiative, who works with different stakeholders to connect various sectors with the startup community. |
| Work in Estonia | Work in Estonia is an initiative designed to support Estonia’s rapidly growing ICT and technology sector. Their team's core expertise lies in talent attraction and management, positioning Estonia as a top destination for international tech professionals and guiding them through their relocation and integration journey. |
| Trade with Estonia | Trade with Estonia connects Estonian companies with business partners across the world. Their team of experts helps those interested with partnerships with leading Estonian companies find partners in their sectors. |
| Visit Estonia | Visit Estonia is focused on introducing Estonia's culture, nature and much more. On their home page, you can find handy topics that help you get an overview of Estonia as a travel destination to discover. |
| Education Estonia | Education Estonia is an initiative for international education cooperation. Estonian students are at the top of the rankings in Europe and among the best in the world. Their team is focused on the education system and the best practices behind Estonia’s success. |
| Research in Estonia | Research in Estonia's team's main aim is to introduce Estonian research on an international level and for international audience. On their website, you can find information about the Estonian research landscape. |
| Databases and dashboards | |
| Estonian Founders Society | The Estonian Founders Society is a group of entrepeneurs with the mission to share their successes and failures to build relationships between startup founders. You can find information about the Estonian startup community, VCs and key ecosystem players on their home page. |
| e-Business Register | In addition to being the main gateway to creating and managing your company, the e-Business Register also offers a lot of useful information and query options, such as statistics. |
| Statistics Estonia | As the main data competence centre in Estonia, Statistics Estonia’s database includes economic indicators as well as a variety of other statistics about Estonia. They also have visualised dashboards for thematic overviews, such as economic and business sector specific overviews and much more. |
| Eesti Pank | The Estonian central bank publishes monthly, quarterly and annual reports on key economic indicators, as well as offering data on several other financial indicators. |
| Estonian Research Information System (ETIS) | Through ETIS, you can look up research publications and data as well as find overviews of Estonian research through the public database managed by the Estonian Research Agency. |