Estonia

Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia covers 45,227 km2, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The Estonians are a Finnic people, and the official language, Estonian, is a Finno-Ugric language closely related to Finnish, and distantly to Hungarian. Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties, with its capital and largest city being Tallinn. Estonia's population of 1.3 million makes it one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A developed country with an advanced, high-income economy, Estonia has the highest gross domestic product per person among the former Soviet republics and is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Estonia ranks high in the Human Development Index and subsequently performs favorably in measurements of press freedom (third in the world in 2012), economic freedom, civil liberties and education. Estonia is often described as one of the most wired countries in Europe and is recognized as a leader in e-government.