Source: Estonia Statistics
TALLINN - Last year, 5,294 persons emigrated from Estonia, and 2,810 persons immigrated into Estonia, show data from Statistics Estonia, reports news agency LETA. Emigration increased and immigration decreased compared to the previous year.
In 2010, emigration exceeded immigration by 2,484 persons. An additional 636 persons emigrated and 1,074 fewer persons immigrated compared to the previous year. Since the restoration of independence, emigration has exceeded immigration in Estonia.
Sixty percent of the immigrants were males. There were slightly more females in emigration. Slightly more than a half of the immigrants were Estonian citizens, and of the emigrants almost 90 percent. Most immigrants came from Finland, Russia, Ukraine and United Kingdom. Those were also the countries where people emigrated to, in addition to Germany, Ireland and the USA.
Internal migration, where a person changes the place of residence crossing the county, city or rural municipality borders, stayed on the level of the previous year in 2010. Approximately 37,500 persons changed their place of residence, crossing the county, city or rural municipality borders.
Immigration exceeded emigration in internal migration the most in Tallinn (net migration was positive, which means that the population of Tallinn grew, due to migration, by 2,353 persons), which was followed by Harku and Rae rural municipalities (the population grew due to migration by 853 and 442 persons, respectively). The biggest losers in internal migration were the cities of Parnu and Tartu (more persons emigrated than immigrated).
Continually, people from peripheries migrate to cities and from there to the hinterland in internal migration. The biggest attraction center is Tallinn, which was able to keep the net migration positive for the second year in a row due to the immigrants from all over Estonia.
In external as well as internal migration most of the migrants are persons in their twenties and thirties.
The population, published by Statistics Estonia, is based on the 2000 Population and Housing Census data and is complemented by the annual data on registered births and deaths. Since 2000, Statistics Estonia has not used immigration and emigration data in the estimation of the population because the 2000 Population Census showed that the registration of migration was insufficient. It was mainly caused by the voluntary registration of the place of residence from the beginning of the 1990s up to 2005. Since 2006, the quality of migration data has improved.
Therefore, since 2009, Statistics Estonia publishes two population numbers – one with and the other without migration.
On Jan. 1, 2010, the population gap between the population with and without migration was 17,000 persons. This does not show one year’s migration, but it shows that since 2000, 17,000 more persons have emigrated from Estonia than immigrated to Estonia.
Statistics Estonia will continue publishing the population number with and without migration until the new Population Census. After the 2011 Population Census Statistics, Estonia will switch to one unified population number.
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