Life in Estonia: A Complete Guide

Text Stewart Johnson
Photos Kaarel Mikkin, Andrei Chertkov

 

What’s the average shelf-life for an Estonian? How happy are they? How much do they drink, and how safe is it to drive in Estonia? While there are of course a great many articles and publications promoting how wonderful this country is, how much of this is true? This guide to the real story about life in Estonia aims to provide many of the answers to these questions in one place, so you don’t have to spend hours sifting through questionable statistics yourself.

 

How long do Estonians live?

Life expectancy in Estonia currently stands at 79.5 years. This means that someone born today can expect to live that long. In 1994, this number was 66.5 years. This represents an increase of 19.5%, which is rather massive. Such an increase would be expected after discovering the cure for the Bubonic Plague, but all that happened was that Estonia discovered the cure for communism.

While Estonia’s giant leap in this category is astounding, the average life expectancy here is still below the EU’s average of 81.4 years. Neighbouring Finland stands at 81.6 years. The highest are Switzerland and Spain, both at over 84 years. It should also be noted that 74% of Estonians over the age of 80 are women. Women traditionally do live longer than men, and there are many theories as to why, but it’s likely simply because men do a lot more stupid stuff in their lives, and this costs them in the end.

If Estonia’s increase in life expectancy continues at the current rate of 19.5% in 30 years, by 2085, the average age an Estonian can expect to reach in life will be 113.5 years. Clearly this is unsustainable, and must be stopped, or the government will have to raise taxes again.

 

 

How smart are Estonians?

Perhaps the better question to ask would be, “How educated are Estonians?” Estonians currently overall rank sixth globally in “key skills”. These key skills are literacy; numeracy, or the ability to work with numbers; and problem-solving. Yet for the generation aged 25–34, this number suddenly rises to second in literacy, and third in numeracy, with only Japan and Finland ranking higher. Clearly the takeaway from this generational leap is a result of the education system, which also tends to rank very highly on world scales.

As Americans like to point out, “stronger public education don’t mean happiness”. The truth is that higher scores in key skills strongly coincide with greater life satisfaction, better health, and higher civic engagement. However, Estonia is not the happiest country. Any visitor to Estonia is fully aware of the stereotype that Estonians seem unhappy—in reality this is not the case—yet 25% of Estonians do feel overqualified for their jobs. This one-quarter of the population is higher than the OECD average of 23% feeling overqualified. Maybe Estonians simply don’t feel sufficiently challenged with everyday life. A tax increase could fix this conundrum.

 

How many Estonian babies die?

The correct way to ask this would be, “What is Estonia’s infant mortality rate?”, but a successful news publication needs clickbait. The answer to this question varies based on where you look. For example, according to the CIA’s “World Factbook”, Estonia’s mortality rate for the first year of life is 3.3 per 1000 live births. This would place them at 31st in the world, with Slovenia and Singapore tied for first at 1.5 per 1000 live births. The same number in the US would be a whopping 5.1 per 1000.

Most other sources however say the infant mortality rate in Estonia is actually 1.62 per 1000 live births, ranking Estonia ninth lowest in the world. And remember, lower is better with this statistic. Iceland would be first at 0.93 per 1000 live births. The US still has relatively the same number though, or even worse: 5.2 per 1000. Perhaps this large gap between the best in the world and the US, as well as the CIA’s inaccurate reporting, stem from lower performance in key skills resulting from cuts in public education.

 

How much do Estonians drink?

This question isn’t about water. Alcohol consumption is generally measured according to how many litres of “pure alcohol” are consumed per year. One shot of vodka, one pint of beer, and one healthy glass of wine typically contain relatively the same amount of “pure alcohol”. According to the CIA again, alcohol consumption in Estonia ranks the country in seventh place, with 11.65 litres of pure alcohol consumed annually per capita. According to this same list, first place would be the Cook Islands, and Latvia, both at 12.9 litres. Russia is listed as 56th place, at 7.3 litres. It is unknown if this list was compiled before or after the current US administration took office.

If we look at reliable statistics however, Estonia is only in sixth place in the European Union overall for drinking frequency. This means how often Estonians drink. Perhaps surprisingly, Estonia has one of the lowest rates for daily drinking, but fourth highest for monthly drinking. This indicates a tendency for “binge drinking”, the medical term used for going out once a month and having a very, very good time. Clearly there needs to be an increase in the excise tax on alcohol.

 

 

How safe is driving in Estonia?

This is one area that is under constant debate, and it is indeed connected to the previous topic. Estonia has made massive efforts to improve traffic safety and overall traffic culture over the past three decades. Bicycle lanes, bus lanes, speed cameras, four-lane highways in many places—these are all major investments in traffic infrastructure that have had an overall positive net impact. However, despite all these efforts, and despite all the improvements, the last five years have seen a surge of 18% in traffic accidents, including accidents involving fatalities.

Roughly a quarter of all traffic accidents involve alcohol consumption. Estonia more or less has a zero-tolerance limit for driving under the influence of alcohol, which is actually rather rare in the world. This ban on drinking and driving, however, is a good thing, and exists because there is a problem. Most other accidents are a result of speeding. What has the city of Tallinn for example done to combat this problem?

The speed limits in much of Estonia’s capital city have been reduced from the historical 50 km/h to 40 km/h, and in many places 30 km/h. Traffic cameras can be found everywhere, and there is even a new AI system in development. While residents do tend to feel safer, for example when crossing the street at a pedestrian crossing, it could in theory be reasoned that the surge in traffic accidents could be caused by the very remedies created to fix this problem in the first place. No one has ever committed adultery who wasn’t married. Perhaps a car tax would be a good solution?

 

Maybe Estonia isn’t number one, but it could be!

Estonia is quickly closing in on the top spots for several categories. The good categories that is, and not bad categories such as first in murder rates. While Estonia might not be number one, there is certainly a strong argument to be made that Estonia is in first place in terms of improvement. And when Estonians decide to do something, they do it. For example being first in the world for new tax increases, and smiling.

 

To learn more about this and similar topics
alcohol consumption driving safety Education Estonia Estonian statistics Life Expectancy Living in Estonia quality of living