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Estonia
Population
The total population of Estonia is 1,315,635 by 1st January. 14,63% is foreign born (Eurostat).
The median age of Estonians is 40.78 which is close to the European average of 40.36 (UN Data).
Political Parties
The most recent parliamentary elections were held in March 2015. The prominent parties, vote shares in this election and their orientations are as follows (Parlgov):
|
Party Name |
Vote Share |
Ideological Orientation |
|
Estonian Reform Party |
27.69 |
Liberal |
|
Estonian Centre Party |
24.81 |
Social democracy |
|
Social Democratic Party | Moderates |
15.19 |
Social democracy |
|
Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica |
13.71 |
Conservative |
|
Free Party |
8.69 |
Conservative |
|
People's Union of Estonia |
8.15 |
Conservative |
|
Estonian Greens |
0.9 |
Green/Ecologist |
Electoral System
The system used in Estonia is List PR in which parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get distributed to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives. They have compensatory two tier system: district and national level. Voter turnout in 2015 was 64.23%.
Quality of Democracy
Quality of democracy score by Freedom House is 1 out of 7 where 1 is the most free and 7 is the least free. According to Transparency International, Estonia is ranked 21st least corrupted among 180 countries with a score of 71 out of 100.
Gender Equality
Currently, 26.7% of the parliamentarians are women (data.worldbank) although there is no legislated quota for women. (Europa)