DEVELOPMENT

Table 1.2.2 also presents the most recent infant mortality
rates (i.e. the percentage of new-born children
who die during the first year of life). In international
comparisons, this is the second most widely used mortality
indicator after life expectancy. Infant mortality
is among the few demographic measures that provides
a reading (2.5% in 2011) from which it is no longer
possible to discern the lack of continuity in Estonia’s
development in the 20 th century. In fact this is not surprising
because, unlike older generations, the health
of the new-born children does not bear the mark of
the past.
1.2.5
Migration and urbanisation
After World War II, about 200,000 Estonians lived outside
the borders of Estonia, of them 110,000 in Russia,
and 90,000 in the West (Tammaru, Kumer-Haukanõmm,
Anniste 2010). The Estonian settlement in Russia had
developed as a result of out-migration in the period of
demographic transition. The Estonian settlement in the
West primarily resulted from the great flight in 1944.
The urbanisation level in pre-war Estonia was low, like
in many East European countries, and towards the end
of the independence period approximately one in three
Estonians lived in urban settlements.
Estonia’s incorporation into the Soviet Union
affected migration more directly than the other population
processes: it resulted in a large-scale immigration
from Russia and other areas of the Soviet Union that
lasted for several decades. Initially, the immigration to
Estonia was largely organised by the Soviet authorities
and all-Union enterprises, and therefore, many of those
who had arrived in Estonia did not settle here permanently,
but left after some time. In total, it is estimated
that during the Soviet period, 1,600,000 people arrived
in Estonia, and 1,260,000 left. This yields a positive
net migration of 340,000 people (Sakkeus 1991). The
return migration of Estonians from Russia also played a
part in the immigration; in the post-war period, a total
of 52 to 54 thousand Estonians returned (Kulu 1997).
Until the 1960s, the intensive migration from Russia
to other parts of the Soviet Union was supported by
rapid population growth characteristic of the demographic
transition in Russia in that period (Rõbakovskii
1987). Thereafter, Russia’s net migration to most Soviet
Republics became negative. Only in Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania did the positive net migration sustain until
the end of the 1980s. However, during the 1970s and
1980s, the net migration in Estonia and the other Baltic
countries was significantly less than at the beginning
of the Soviet era.
Against the background of Europe’s major regions,
Estonia is distinguished by a high level of net migration
until the restoration of independence (Figure 1.2.4). In
Western and Northern Europe, the net migration was
also positive in that period, but smaller than in Estonia.
Due to the closed-off state borders during the period
of state socialism, the international migration in the
Eastern European countries was close to nil, and their
populations were affected neither by immigration nor
Joonis 1.2.5
Population, number of Estonians and other ethnic
groups. Estonia 1960–2011
Population, thousands
Estonians
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1960
1965
1970
Other ethnic groups
1975
1980
by emigrations. The greatest changes in migration flows
during this period took place in Southern Europe. Until
the 1970s, Southern Europe was an emigration region,
with intra-European migration being highly significant
for this region. At that time, flows from Southern Europe
to Western Europe were prevailing in the intra-European
migration (Castles, Miller 2008), compared to the flows
from Eastern Europe to Western Europe today. Starting
in the 1970s, Southern Europe gradually became a region
of immigration.
When Estonia’s independence was restored in
1991, the proportion of foreign-born population was
among the highest in Europe: every fourth resident
had been born outside of Estonia. For instance, at the
same time, the percentage in Germany was 13%, 14%
in Sweden, and only 4% in Finland. Among the European
countries, only Luxembourg featured a higher
percentage of foreign-born residents (30%) than Estonia
or Latvia, and the percentage in Switzerland (21%) was
largely comparable to ours. In 1945, Estonians comprised
approximately 97% of Estonia’s population. The
changes that took place, between 1960 and 2011, in the
proportion of the native and foreign-origin population
(immigrants and their children born in the receiving
country) are approximated quite precisely by different
ethnic groups in Figure 1.2.5.
The majority of the immigrants settled in the urban
areas, where the proportion of Estonians dropped, by
the end of the 1980s, to an average of 51%, and to an
even lower level in Tallinn and the cities of Ida-Viru
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013
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