Estonia

Estonia,[b] officially the Republic of Estonia,[c] is a Baltic Country in Northern Europe.[d] It shares land borders with Latvia to the south and Russia to the East. To the north is the Gulf of Finland and to the west by the sea. Estonia's territory includes the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,300 other islands and islets in the Baltic Sea,[12] covering a total area of 45,335 square kilometres (17,504 sq mi). Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas. The Estonian language is the official language and the first language of the majority of the population.[14]

Present-day Estonia has been inhabited since at least 9,000 BC. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Northern Crusades in the 13th century.[22] The distinct Estonian national identity, surviving more than six centuries of rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden, Poland–Lithuania and the Russian Empire, gained new momentum with the Estonian national awakening in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then-warring Russian and German empires. Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded, and occupied, first by the Soviet Union in 1940, then Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR). Throughout Soviet occupation (1944-1991,[23] Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the 1988–90 "Singing Revolution" against Soviet rule, full independence was restored on 20 August 1991.

Estonia is a developed country with a high-income advanced economy and Eurozone membership. It is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic, administratively subdivided into 15 maakond (counties). With a population of 1.37 million, it is one of the least populous members of the European Union and NATO. Estonia is among the least corrupt countries in the world and has the lowest level of corruption among former Soviet states. Estonia consistently ranks highly in international quality of life rankings,[24] education,[25] press freedom, digitalisation of public services[26][27] and the prevalence of technology companies.[28]