People and Society of Estonia

Nationality

Estonian(s)

Ethnic Groups

Estonian 68.7%, Russian 24.8%, Ukrainian 1.7%, Belarusian 1%, Finn 0.6%, other 1.6%, unspecified 1.6%

Population

1,291,170

Population in Major Urban Areas

TALLINN (capital) 400,000

Although medical care in Estonia falls short of Western standards, Estonia’s medical care is generally good, especially in Tallinn and in some other cities such as Tartu and Pärnu. Estonia has many highly-trained medical professionals, but some hospitals and clinics still suffer from a lack of equipment and resources. While private physicians often speak fair to excellent English, you are likely to find very limited English in hospitals and in emergency rooms. Due to workload, doctors in hospitals spend considerably less time interacting with a patient than is typical in an American hospital. Nurses and other hospital staff are likely to speak little to no English. You can find good information on vaccinations and other health precautions, such as safe food and water precautions and insect bite protection, on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website, or by calling their hotline for international travelers at 1-877-FYI-TRIP (1-877-394-8747). You can also consult the World Health Organization’s (WHO) website, which contains additional health information for travelers, including detailed country-specific health information. If you plan to visit forested areas of Estonia in the summertime, you should take steps to avoid ticks because of occasional cases of tick-borne encephalitis. Although there is no vaccine against this disease currently licensed for use in the United States, a vaccine requiring a series of injections is available under two different brand names in Estonia, both of which can be obtained from many local physicians. Serious cases of seasonal influenza, including H1N1, have been reported in recent years and you should consider getting a flu shot before traveling to Estonia during flu season.

Major Infectious Diseases

Intermediate

Literacy Definition

Age 15 and over can read and write

• Unaffiliated33.0%
• Unspecified32.0%
• Lutheran14.0%
• Orthodox13.0%
• Atheist6.0%
• Christian2.0%

Estonian (official), Russian, Ukrainian, Finnish, other

• Estonian
• Russian
• Ukrainian

Crime Information

Estonia is a relatively safe country, although sporadic crime in Tallinn’s Old Town is an ongoing concern, particularly during the summer tourist season. You should exercise the same precautions with regard to your personal safety and belongings that you would take in major U.S. cities. The most common crime encountered by foreign tourists in Estonia is pick-pocketing. Tourists are often targeted by individuals and small groups of thieves working together. In public places such as Tallinn’s Old Town, in particular the Town Hall Square (“Raekoja Plats”), the airport, train stations, bus stations, and the Central Market, you should exercise special care in safeguarding valuables against pick-pockets. Guard your valuables, especially purses and bags, while visiting busy cafés and restaurants. Do not leave valuables unattended in vehicles, and make sure car doors are locked at all times. From time to time, especially late at night near bars and night clubs, foreigners have been subject to scams, or have become involved in altercations, including some involving violence, with inebriated individuals. Common late night scams involve women enticing tourists in a reputable bar to visit a nearby bar where they are grossly overcharged. Although Estonian police have shut down several suspect bars over the past year, this remains a concern. On occasion, U.S. citizens have reported that they were harassed for racial reasons or because they appeared or sounded “foreign.” These incidents have generally occurred outside of major tourist areas. Credit-card fraud is also an ongoing concern, as is Internet-based financial fraud and “Internet dating” fraud. You should take precautions to safeguard your credit cards and report any suspected unauthorized transaction to the credit card company immediately. If an incident occurs, you should report it promptly to the local police. The Estonian police agencies are modern, well-equipped law enforcement entities on a standard comparable to most Western European police. Don’t buy counterfeit and pirated goods, even if they are widely available. Not only are the bootlegs illegal to bring back into the United States, by purchasing them you may also be breaking local laws.

Criminal Penalties

While traveling in Estonia, you are subject to its laws and regulations. Foreign laws and legal systems can be vastly different than our own. If you break local laws in Estonia, your U.S. passport won’t help you avoid arrest or prosecution. It’s very important to know what is legal and what is not legal where you are going. There are also some things that might be legal in the country you visit, but still illegal in the United States. For example, you can be prosecuted under U.S. law if you buy pirated goods abroad. Engaging in sexual conduct with children or using or disseminating child pornography in a foreign country is a crime prosecutable in the United States. Based on the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and customary international law, if you are arrested in Estonia you have the option to request that the police, prison officials, or other authorities alert the U.S. Embassy of your arrest and to have communications from you forwarded to the embassy.