Citizenship and Nationality

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March 25, 2005

Citizenship and Nationality

27 September 2002 (Latest date for those figures)

Mother Tongue and Command of Foreign Languages

The 2000 Population and Housing Census provides census results on the citizenship, nationality, mother tongue and command of foreign languages of the Estonian population as of 31 March 2000.

Comparisons are drawn with the results of the 1989 Population Census.

Citizenship

The question on citizenship was included in the 1922 and 1934 population censuses. Citizens of Estonia numbered 1,082,145, or 97.7%, of the population in 1922, and in 1934 the respective figure was 1,112,942, or 98.8%. The population censuses conducted in Estonia during the Soviet period only recorded the citizenship of citizens from foreign states, i.e. those who were not citizens of the Soviet Union. In 1989, 39 citizens of 15 states were recorded among the resident population. 1,330 citizens from other states, mainly from Poland, Vietnam and Finland, were temporarily residing in Estonia.

The re-establishment of Estonia’s independence brought about the necessity to specify the citizenry of Estonia. The Estonian Citizens’ Committee already started to register the citizens of the Republic of Estonia in 1989 by birth and those who wished to become Estonian citizens.

In 1992 the Citizenship Act of 1938 was implemented in Estonia and the process of issuing passports to Estonian citizens started. In 1995 the new Citizenship Act entered into force, pursuant to which Estonian citizenship is acquired by birth or by naturalisation or by other procedures provided for in this act.

According to the 2000 Population Census, citizens of 75 different countries were enumerated among the resident population of Estonia. 209 persons had multiple citizenships. The population distribution by citizenship was as follows :