Estonia

Estonia,^[a] officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Europe.^[b] It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipsi and Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea,^[11] covering a total area of 45,339 square kilometres (17,505 sq mi). The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country. The Estonian language is the indigenous and the official language of Estonia; it is the first language of the majority of its population, as well as the world's second-most spoken Finnic language.

The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by humans since at least 9,000 BCE. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal-sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century.^[12] After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the 24 February 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, however the country was repeatedly contested, invaded, and occupied; first by the Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and was ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR). Throughout the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation,^[13] Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the bloodless Estonian "Singing Revolution" of 1988–1990, the nation's de facto independence from the Soviet Union was restored on 20 August 1991.

Estonia is a developed country, with a high-income advanced economy, ranking 31st (out of 191) in the Human Development Index.^[14] The sovereign state of Estonia is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic, administratively subdivided into 15 maakond (counties). With a population of just around 1.4 million, it is one of the least populous members of the European Union, the Eurozone, the OECD, the Schengen Area, and NATO. Estonia has consistently ranked highly in international rankings for quality of life,^[15] education,^[16] press freedom, digitalisation of public services^[17][18] and the prevalence of technology companies.^[19]

The name Estonia (Estonian: Eesti [ˈeːsʲti] ^ⓘ) has been connected to Aesti, a people first mentioned by Ancient Roman historian Tacitus around 98 CE. Some modern historians believe he was referring to Balts, while others have proposed that the name then applied to the whole eastern Baltic Sea region.^[20] Scandinavian sagas and Viking runestones^[21] referring to Eistland are the earliest known sources that definitely use the name in its modern geographic meaning.^[22] From Old Norse the toponym spread to other Germanic vernaculars and reached literary Latin by the end of 12th century.^[23][24]

Esthonia was a common alternative spelling in English until the beginning of 20th century. In 1922, in a response to Estonian diplomats, the Royal Geographical Society agreed that the correct spelling was Estonia. Formal adoption at the government level took place only in 1926, with the United Kingdom and United States then adopting the spelling Estonia.^[25]