Language

The country's official language is Estonian, a Finno-Ugric language which is closely related to Finnish. It has been influenced by German, and like Finnish contains many Swedish words.

Russian is also widely spoken as a secondary language by 30- to 70-year-old ethnic Estonians, because Russian was taught as a compulsory second language during the Soviet era. Some Russians residing in Estonia do not speak Estonian, but many of those who remained after the collapse of the Soviet Union have begun to learn it.

Many younger Estonian people can usually speak English, having learned it as their first foreign language.