The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland , the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa , and over 2, other islands and islets on the east coast of the Baltic Sea, [ 12 ] covering a total area of 45, square kilometres 17, sq mi. Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas. The Estonian language is the official language and the first language of the majority of the population of 1. Present-day Estonia has been inhabited by humans since at least 9, BC.
The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Northern Crusades in the 13th century. This culminated in the Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then-warring Russian and German empires.
Democratic throughout most of the interwar period , Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II , but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded, and occupied , first by the Soviet Union in , then Nazi Germany in , and ultimately reoccupied in by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit Estonian SSR.
Throughout the โ91 Soviet occupation, [ 23 ] Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the โ90 " Singing Revolution " against Soviet rule, the nation's full independence was restored on 20 August Estonia is a developed country with a high-income advanced economy and a member of the Eurozone. It is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic , administratively subdivided into 15 maakond counties.
With a population of 1. Estonia is among the least corrupt countries in the world and has the lowest level of corruption among the former Soviet Union states. Estonia has consistently ranked highly in international rankings for quality of life , [ 24 ] education , [ 25 ] press freedom , digitalisation of public services [ 26 ] [ 27 ] and the prevalence of technology companies.
