Estonians

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| label11 = {{#invoke:flag||Finland}} | data11 = 49,590–100,000Template:Efn<ref name=fi>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label12 = Template:USA | data12 = 29,128<ref name="ACS2021">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label13 = {{#invoke:flag||Sweden}} | data13 = 25,509<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label14 = Template:CAN | data14 = 24,000<ref name="canadainternational.gc.ca">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label15 = Template:GBR | data15 = 10,000–15,000<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label16 = {{#invoke:flag||Russia|}} | data16 = 7,778<ref name="census2021">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label17 = Template:AUS | data17 = 7,543<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label18 = Template:GER | data18 = 6,286<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label19 = {{#invoke:flag||Norway}} | data19 = 5,092<ref name="ssb">"Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, 1 January 2016". Statistics Norway. Accessed 01 May 2016.</ref> | label20 = | data20 = | label21 = {{#invoke:flag||Ukraine}} | data21 = 2,868<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label22 = {{#invoke:flag||Ireland}} | data22 = 2,560<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label23 = {{#invoke:flag||Belgium}} | data23 = 2,000<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label24 = Template:LAT | data24 = 1,676<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | label25 = Template:DEN | data25 = 1,658<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Population at the first day of the quarter by country of origin, region and time. Retrieved on 23 May 2024.</ref> | label26 = Template:NED | data26 = 1,482<ref>Official CBS website containing all Dutch demographic statistics. Cbs.nl. Retrieved on 4 July 2017.</ref> | label27 = | data27 = | label28 = | data28 = | label29 = | data29 = | label30 = | data30 = | label31 = | data31 = | label32 = | data32 = | label33 = | data33 = | label34 = | data34 = | label35 = | data35 = | label36 = | data36 = | label37 = | data37 = | label38 = | data38 = | label39 = | data39 = | label40 = | data40 = | label41 = | data41 = | label42 = | data42 = | label43 = | data43 = | label44 = | data44 = | label45 = | data45 = | label46 = | data46 = | label47 = | data47 = | label48 = | data48 = | label49 = | data49 = | label50 = | data50 = | label51 = | data51 = | label52 = | data52 = | label53 = | data53 = | label54 = | data54 = | label55 = | data55 = | label56 = | data56 = | label57 = | data57 = | label58 = | data58 = | label59 = | data59 = | label60 = | data60 = | header61 = {{#if:Primarily Estonian
also Võro and Seto |Languages}} | data62 = Primarily Estonian
also Võro and Seto | header63 = {{#if:Majority irreligious
Historically Protestant Christian (Lutheranism)<ref name="IvkovićHaberfeld2015">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Small |Religion}} | data64 = Majority irreligious
Historically Protestant Christian (Lutheranism)<ref name="IvkovićHaberfeld2015">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox ethnic group with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | caption | flag |flag_alt | flag_border | flag_caption | flag_upright | footnotes | genealogy | group | image |image_alt | image_caption | image_upright | langs | languages | native_name | native_name_lang | pop | pop_embed | pop1 | pop10 | pop11 | pop12 | pop13 | pop14 | pop15 | pop16 | pop17 | pop18 | pop19 | pop2 | pop20 | pop21 | pop22 | pop23 | pop24 | pop25 | pop26 | pop27 | pop28 | pop29 | pop3 | pop30 | pop31 | pop32 | pop33 | pop34 | pop35 | pop36 | pop37 | pop38 | pop39 | pop4 | pop40 | pop41 | pop42 | pop43 | pop44 | pop45 | pop46 | pop47 | pop48 | pop49 | pop5 | pop50 | pop6 | pop7 | pop8 | pop9 | popplace | population | rawimage | ref1 | ref10 | ref11 | ref12 | ref13 | ref14 | ref15 | ref16 | ref17 | ref18 | ref19 | ref2 | ref20 | ref21 | ref22 | ref23 | ref24 | ref25 | ref26 | ref27 | ref28 | ref29 | ref3 | ref30 | ref31 | ref32 | ref33 | ref34 | ref35 | ref36 | ref37 | ref38 | ref39 | ref4 | ref40 | ref41 | ref42 | ref43 | ref44 | ref45 | ref46 | ref47 | ref48 | ref49 | ref5 | ref50 | ref6 | ref7 | ref8 | ref9 | region1 | region10 | region11 | region12 | region13 | region14 | region15 | region16 | region17 | region18 | region19 | region2 | region20 | region21 | region22 | region23 | region24 | region25 | region26 | region27 | region28 | region29 | region3 | region30 | region31 | region32 | region33 | region34 | region35 | region36 | region37 | region38 | region39 | region4 | region40 | region41 | region42 | region43 | region44 | region45 | region46 | region47 | region48 | region49 | region5 | region50 | region6 | region7 | region8 | region9 | regions | related | related_groups | related-c | religions | rels | tablehdr | total | total_ref | total_source | total_year | total1 | total1_ref | total1_source | total1_year | total2 | total2_ref | total2_source | total2_year | total3 | total3_ref | total3_source | total3_year }}Template:Main other Estonians or Estonian people (Template:Langx) are a Finnic ethnic group native to the Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe, primarily their nation state of Estonia.

Estonians primarily speak the Estonian language, a language closely related to other Finnic languages, e.g. Finnish, Karelian and Livonian. The Finnic languages are a subgroup of the larger Uralic family of languages, which also includes e.g. the Sami languages. These languages are markedly different from most other native languages spoken in Europe, most of which have been assigned to the Indo-European family of languages. Estonians can also be classified into subgroups according to dialects (e.g. Võros, Setos), although such divisions have become less pronounced due to internal migration and rapid urbanisation in Estonia in the 20th century.

There are approximately 1 million ethnic Estonians worldwide, with the vast majority of them residing in their native Estonia. Estonian diaspora communities formed primarily in Finland, the United States, Sweden, Canada, and the United Kingdom.Template:Cn

HistoryEdit

Prehistoric rootsEdit

Estonia was first inhabited about 13,000–11,000 years ago, when the Baltic Ice Lake melted. Living in the same area for more than 5,000 years would put Estonians' ancestors among Europe's oldest permanent inhabitants.<ref>Unrepresented Nations and peoples organization By Mary Kate Simmons; p141 Template:ISBN</ref> On the other hand, some recent linguistic estimations suggest that Finno-Ugric speakers arrived around the Baltic Sea considerably later, perhaps during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 1800 BCE).<ref>Petri Kallio 2006: Suomalais-ugrilaisen kantakielen absoluuttisesta kronologiasta. — Virittäjä 2006. (With English summary).</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It has also been argued that Western Uralic tribes reached Fennoscandia first, leading into the development of the Sámi peoples, and arrived in the Baltic region later in the Bronze Age<ref name=":4" /> or the transition to the Iron Age at the latest.<ref name=":2" /> This lead into the formation of Baltic Finnic peoples, who would later become such groups as Estonians and Finns.<ref name=":4">Lang, Valter: Homo Fennicus – Itämerensuomalaisten etnohistoria, pp. 335–336. Finnish Literature Society, 2020. Template:ISBN</ref>

The oldest known endonym of the Estonians is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}},<ref name="ariste">Template:Cite journal</ref> literally meaning "land people" or "country folk". It was used until the mid-19th century, when it was gradually replaced by Eesti rahvas "Estonian people" during the Estonian national awakening.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Eesti, the modern endonym of Estonia, is thought to have similar origins to Aesti, the name used by the Germanic peoples for the neighbouring people living northeast of the mouth of the Vistula. The Roman historian Tacitus in 98 CE was the first to mention the "Aesti" in writing. In Old Norse, the land south of the Gulf of Finland was called Eistland and the people eistr. The Wanradt–Koell Catechism, the first known book in Estonian, was printed in 1525, while the oldest known examples of written Estonian originate in 13th-century chronicles.

National consciousnessEdit

File:Russa literacy 1897.jpg

Public education systems founded during prior Swedish rule turned Estonia and Finland into the two most literate areas of Russian Empire (map of 1897 census literacy data)

File:Talumehed kaarte mängimas, Oskar Hoffmann, EKM j 190-768 M 957.jpg

Estonian farmers playing cards (by Oskar Hoffmann, ca 1895)

Template:Multiple image Although Estonian national consciousness spread in the course of the 19th century during the Estonian national awakening,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> some degree of ethnic awareness preceded this development.<ref name="raun2003">Template:Cite journal</ref> By the 18th century the self-denomination {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} spread among Estonians along with the older {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name="ariste"/> Anton thor Helle's translation of the Bible into Estonian appeared in 1739, and the number of books and brochures published in Estonian increased from 18 in the 1750s to 54 in the 1790s. By 1800, more than a half of adult Estonians could read. The first university-educated intellectuals identifying themselves as Estonians, including Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (1798–1850), Kristjan Jaak Peterson (1801–1822) and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), appeared in the 1820s. The ruling elites had remained predominantly German in language and culture since the conquest of the early 13th century. Garlieb Merkel (1769–1850), a Baltic-German Estophile, became the first author to treat the Estonians as a nationality equal to others; he became a source of inspiration for the Estonian national movement, modelled on Baltic German cultural world before the middle of the 19th century. However, in the middle of the century, Estonians became more ambitious and started leaning toward the Finns and their so-called Fennoman movement as successful model of national movement. By the end of 1860s, the Estonians became unwilling to reconcile with German cultural and political hegemony. Before the attempts at Russification in the 1880s, their view of the Russian Empire remained positive.<ref name="raun2003"/>

Estonians have strong ties to the Nordic countries stemming from important cultural and religious influences gained over centuries during Scandinavian and German rule and settlement.<ref>Piirimäe, Helmut. Historical heritage: the relations between Estonia and her Nordic neighbors. In M. Lauristin et al. (eds.), Return to the Western world: Cultural and political perspectives on the Estonian post-communist transition. Tartu: Tartu University Press, 1997.</ref> According to a poll done in 2013, about half of the young Estonians considered themselves Nordic, and about the same number viewed Baltic identity as important. The Nordic identity among Estonians can ovelap with other identities, as it is associated with being Finno-Ugric and their close relationship with the Finnish people and does not exclude being Baltic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Estonian foreign ministry reports from the early 2000s Nordic identity was preferred over Baltic one.<ref>Estonian foreign ministry report Template:Webarchive, 2004</ref><ref>Estonian foreign ministry report Template:Webarchive, 2002</ref>

After the Treaty of Tartu (1920) recognised Estonia's 1918 independence from Russia, ethnic Estonians residing in Russia gained the option to acquire the citizenship of Estonia upon returning to the newly independent country. An estimated 40,000 Estonians lived in Russia in 1920, and 37,578 people resettled from Russia to Estonia in 1920–1923.

EmigrationEdit

During World War II, when Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Army in 1944, large numbers of Estonians fled their homeland on ships or smaller boats over the Baltic Sea. Many refugees who survived the risky sea voyage to Sweden or Germany later moved from there to Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia.<ref>Past, Evald, By Land and By Sea, Booklocker, 2015, Template:ISBN</ref> Some of these refugees and their descendants returned to Estonia after the nation regained its independence in 1991.

Over the years of independence, many Estonians have chosen to work abroad, primarily in Finland, but also in the UK, Benelux, Sweden, and Germany.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Estonians in CanadaEdit

One of the largest permanent Estonian communities outside Estonia is in Canada, with about 24,000 people<ref name="canadainternational.gc.ca"/> (according to some sources up to 50,000 people).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the late 1940s and early 1950s, about 17,000 arrived in Canada, initially in Montreal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Toronto is currently the city with the largest population of Estonians outside of Estonia. The first Estonian World Festival was held in Toronto in 1972.

GeneticsEdit

Uniparental haplogroupsEdit

Y-chromosome haplogroups among Estonians include N1c (35.7%),<ref name=":0">Lang, Valter: Homo Fennicus – Itämerensuomalaisten etnohistoria, pp. 93–95. Finnish Literature Society, 2020. Template:ISBN.</ref> R1a (33.5%)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and I1 (15%).<ref name=":0" /> R1a, common in Eastern Europe,<ref name=":9" /> was the dominant Y-DNA haplogroup among the pre-Uralic inhabitants of Estonia, as it is the only one found in the local samples from the time of the Corded Ware culture and Bronze Age. Appearance of N1c is linked to the arrival of Uralic-speakers.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref> It originated in East Eurasia<ref name=":7">Template:Cite journal</ref> and is commonly carried by modern Uralic-speaking groups but also other North Eurasians, including Estonians' Baltic-speaking neighbors Latvians and Lithuanians.<ref name=":0" /> Compared to the Balts, Estonians have been noticed to have differences in allelic variances of N1c haplotypes, showing more similarity with other Finno-Ugric-speakers.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":9">Lappalainen, Tuuli: Human genetic variation in the Baltic Sea region: features of population history and natural selection. PhD thesis. Helsinki University Print, Helsinki. 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/22129</ref>

When looking at maternal lineages, nearly half (45 %) of the Estonians have the haplogroup H . About one in four (24.2 %) carry the haplogroup U, and the majority of them belong to its subclade U5.<ref name=":7" />

Autosomal DNAEdit

File:Figure 2a (Cropped) PCA of Europeans.jpg

A PCA of Estonians and several other European populations.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:PCA of 2305 Estonian samples.webp

Regional population structure of Estonians.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Autosomally Estonians are close with Latvians and Lithuanians<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> However, they are shifted towards the Finns, who are isolated from most European populations.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite journal</ref> Northeastern Estonians are particularly close to Finns, while southeastern Estonians are close to the Balts; other Estonians plot between these two extremes.<ref name=":8" />

Estonians have high steppe-like admixture, and less farmer-related and more hunter-gatherer-related admixture than Western and Central Europeans. The same pattern is found also in the Balts, Finns and Mordvins, for example.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Uralic peoples typically carry a Siberian-related component, which is also present in Estonians and makes up about five percent of their ancestry on average. Although they have a smaller share of it than other Finnic-speakers, it is one factor that distinguishes them from the Balts.<ref name=":7" /> Estonians can also be modelled to have considerably more Finnish-like ancestry than Baltic-speakers.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" />

Estonians have a high sharing of IBD (identity-by-descent) segments with other studied Finnic groups (Finns, Karelians and Vepsians) and the Sami people, as well as with the Polish people.<ref name=":1" />