Estonia country guide — references and map notes
Reviewed 19 October 2026

Population and language: Statistics Estonia, 2021 Population and Housing Census.
1,331,824 is the census count of usual residents, not a current estimate.
https://rahvaloendus.ee/en/results
https://www.stat.ee/en/find-statistics/statistics-theme/population/population-census

Institutions and the 101-member Riigikogu:
https://www.riigikogu.ee/en/introduction-and-history/riigikogu/
https://www.eesti.ee/en/republic-of-estonia/republic-of-estonia

Independence, occupation and restoration:
https://www.riigikogu.ee/en/introduction-and-history/history-riigikogu/
https://vm.ee/en/estonian-state-and-people

EU membership and euro adoption (2011):
https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/eu-countries/estonia_en
NATO membership (29 March 2004):
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52044.htm
E-residency is digital access, not citizenship, immigration permission or tax residence:
https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/

Heritage: Tallinn historic centre and the transnational Struve Geodetic Arc.
https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ee/
Song and dance celebrations, Seto leelo and Võromaa smoke sauna:
https://ich.unesco.org/en/state/estonia-EE
Tourism, food, towns, islands and cultural places:
https://visitestonia.com/en
Protected landscapes: Lahemaa, Soomaa, Matsalu, Vilsandi and Alutaguse:
https://kaitsealad.ee/en

Map scope: sixteen curated approximate settlement-centre coordinates, in
longitude/latitude order. Northern/western and southern/central groups are
learning groupings, not counties, municipalities or statistical regions.
No county-boundary or river game is claimed. The country outline is extracted
from the repository's Natural Earth-derived countries.geojson (public domain).
https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/

Sights: sixteen curated heritage and landscape points. Essential and Worth a
detour are editorial learning priorities. Wetland and national-park pins are
representative locations; they do not identify an entrance or trailhead unless
explicitly described. The Matsalu pin represents the Penijõe visitor-centre area.
Coordinates are checked against a buffered generalised country outline.

Images: local files in /images/country-guides/estonia/. Each .source.json records
the Wikimedia Commons file page, author, licence and download URL. Rendered
credits link to Commons and retain the author and licence. The library image
illustrates reading and language; it does not depict a language lesson.

Quiz review: all 80 original Estonia seed questions were reviewed. Corrections
apply at read time through estonia-facts-patches.json, preserving IDs and
progress. They clarify island-count ambiguity, Lake Peipus wording, the 1991
restoration, medieval orders, Tallinn dating, census language share, regional
clothing versus flag colours, Skype developer attribution, national internet
voting, e-residency, undated economy/population claims, Suur Munamägi distractors,
Lahemaa superlatives, bog plants, Pikk Hermann and Russian-speaking communities.
No seed literals or database records are changed.

County and water maps, updated 28 October 2026:
Administrative and settlement units, Estonian Land and Spatial Development
Board, 2 September 2026. The board permits use with source and date cited:
https://geoportaal.maaamet.ee/eng/Spatial-Data/Administrative-and-Settlement-Division-p312.html
The Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities lists 15 counties and
their centres: https://elvl.ee/kohalikud-omavalitsused/eesti-haldusjaotuse-kaart
Waters: Natural Earth 1:10m, public domain, https://www.naturalearthdata.com/
Boundaries are generalised for learning; city coordinates are curated.
Coastal windows do not show maritime claims or borders.