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1 369 995 people

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45,335 km² total area

Estonia at a glance

The facts and metrics that highlight Estonia's global influence. Because our results speak for themselves. 

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estonia's global image

The Global Soft Power Index is an annual study conducted by Brand Finance that evaluates the perceptions of all 193 United Nations member states in areas such as business, governance, and international relations. In 2023, Estonia saw a significant increase in its soft power since 2022. This rise reflects a growing global recognition and improved familiarity as well as reputation for Estonia. 

_The number on the graph illustrates Estonia's position among 193 countries in the Global Soft Power Index._

Brand Finance

Global Soft Power Index

Estonia continues to punch above its weight in the Global Soft Power Index, earning a 65th place ranking in 2025.

The increase in soft power since 2022 proves Estonia's growing reputation as a leader in digital innovation, governance, and strong democratic values as well as increased familiarity during the past few years.

65th in the Soft Power Index

Estonia's global familiarity and reputation experienced a decline since 2019, but they have been improving over the past two years. The country's response to the war in Ukraine has notably enhanced its global standing since 2022. The data reflects Estonia's familiarity and reputation scores on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest possible rating.

Familiarity

Reputation

Estonia's global familiarity is increasing, and reputation remains strong. 

Those who know, think highly of Estonia

Sustainable future, education & science, and governance are more strongly associated with Estonia, while culture and heritage are less so. A lower ranking in the culture and heritage category does not imply negative reputation but that this is less frequently associated with Estonia compared to other countries that are more well-known for their culture.

The number on the graph shows Estonia's position across the soft power pillars among 193 countries globally.

Global Soft Power Index position by topics

Sustainable future, education & science, and governance are more strongly associated with Estonia, while culture and heritage are less so. 

Leading with trust, innovation and sustainability

The Anholt Nation Brands Index (NBI) assesses the awareness and perception of 50 countries on topics such as governance, culture, exports, tourism, people, investment and immigration. 

Estonia's overall nation brand performance has improved considerably in the fifteen years since it was last included in the Nation Brands Index, rising from 42nd in 2009 to 35th in 2024. Estonia's scores also statistically significantly improved across the measured topics between 2009 and 2024.

**The six dimensions of Anholt’s ‘Hexagon of National Image’ model:**

**Exports:**
- Major contribution to innovation in science and technology
- Feel good about buying products
- Creative place with cutting-edge ideas and new ways of thinking

**Governance:**
- Competently and honestly governed
- Respects human rights of its citizens and treats them with fairness
- Behaves responsibly in international peace and security
- Behaves responsibly to protect the environment
- Behaves responsibly to help reduce world poverty

**Tourism:**
- Most likely to visit if money is no object
- Rich in natural beauty
- Rich in historic buildings and monuments
- Vibrant city life and urban attractions

**Culture:**
- Excels at sports
- Has rich heritage
- Interesting/exciting contemporary culture such as music, films, art, and literature

**People:**
- Welcoming people
- Would like a person from country as close friend
- Willingness to hire well-qualified people from country

**Immigration & investment:**
- Willingness to live and work for substantial period
- High quality of life
- Good place to study for educational qualifications
- Has promising businesses
- Cares about equality in society

NBI 2009 vs 2024

Estonia’s global perception has significantly improved, climbing from 42nd in 2009 to 35th in 2024 in the Nation Brands Index. Over the past 15 years, Estonia has strengthened its reputation across all key areas, with notable progress in investment, governance, and people.

Nation Brands Index

A nation's brand, much like any other brand, has considerable value. It represents how a country is perceived and is tied to its economic performance and the investments made in that brand. Over the past year, the value of Estonia's brand has risen by 10%, totaling 47 billion euros, maintaining its position from 2023, following €1 billion improvement year on year.

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Estonia's nation brand value

Estonia's global image

In Estonia, everything just works. We make it easy for you to succeed and grow without the hassle. 

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fast forward with digital ease

Estonia ranks #1 globally for tax competitiveness, achieving a perfect score of 100 on a scale of 0–100. For 10 consecutive years, the OECD has recognized Estonia as the global leader, thanks to its simple and transparent tax system.

International Tax Competitiveness Index

With a score of 92, Estonia is ranked #2 worldwide for safeguarding digital rights and ensuring online freedom. According to Freedom House's Freedom on the Net report, Estonia continues to lead in protecting privacy and fostering a secure digital environment.

Freedom on the Net Report 2024

Estonia holds a top 3 global position for e-governance innovation, as recognized by the United Nations. Renowned for its pioneering digital society, Estonia’s advanced e-government services are a benchmark for transparency and efficiency worldwide.

UN E-Government Survey 2024

Hassle-free business and daily life in the world’s most advanced digital society.

Leading in business readiness

To date, Estonia has granted an e-resident status to over 120,000 people that have founded or co-founded close to 34,000 companies.

Number of e-residents

Top countries by number of e-residents

With over 120,000 people already on board, Estonia is making entrepreneurship accessible from anywhere in the world.

Explore e-residency

World's first e-residency program

Leading digital society

In Estonia, culture, nature, and community come together to help you and your ideas flourish.

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environment to thrive

Estonia is ranked #1 globally for environmental performance, achieving a score of 75 according to Yale University research. This recognition highlights Estonia’s leadership in sustainability and its dedication to preserving natural resources.

Environmental Performance Index 2024

Estonia ranks among countries with the cleanest air, meeting WHO’s highest standards. As one of only seven nations worldwide to achieve this level of air purity, Estonia sets an example in environmental health and sustainability.

The cleanest air in the world

Estonia sets global benchmarks for environmental responsibility and air quality, showcasing a commitment to a cleaner, greener future.

Leading the way in sustainability

Estonia ranks among the top 5 countries in Northern Europe for quality of life, standing alongside nations like Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, according to the Quality of Life Index.

The Quality of Life Index measures key factors like purchasing power, pollution levels, housing affordability, cost of living, safety, healthcare quality, commute times, and climate conditions, offering a comprehensive view of living standards.

Top performer in Northern Europe

Estonia’s position among the European countries in the Quality of Life Index has remained consistently strong over the years.

The Quality of Life Index measures key factors like purchasing power, pollution levels, housing affordability, cost of living, safety, healthcare quality, commute times, and climate conditions, offering a comprehensive view of living standards.

Estonia's position in Europe

Estonia ranks among the top countries for quality of life, with strong scores in well-being, safety, and living standards.

Among the best places to live in

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Estonia’s natural environment is one of the most diverse in Europe, characterized by vast forests, extensive bogs, and thousands of islands. These unique landscapes not only define the country’s geography but also play a crucial role in preserving biodiversity and supporting sustainable ecosystems.

Stunning natural diversity

From globally acclaimed festivals to UNESCO-recognized traditions, Estonia’s culture resonates far beyond its borders.

The Estonian Song and Dance Celebration, recognized by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, unites over 30,000 performers in one of the world’s largest choral and cultural events.

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Estonian Song and Dance Celebration

Song and Dance Celebration

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) ranks among the top 14 accredited film festivals globally, recognized for its excellence by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

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FIAPF

Black Nights Film Festival

World-class Estonian culture

Commitment to sustainability

In Estonia, talented people turn big ideas into world-changing solutions. Usually in saunas.

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makers' mindset

**Glia: building the future of customer service**
“The future of customer service is digital, and those that have yet to take steps to modernise their support and engagement strategies are already behind,” said Dan Michaeli, co-founder and CEO at Glia, a digital customer service provider that reached a billion-dollar valuation in March 2022.

“Our rapid growth and successful relationships with financial services companies of all types demonstrate the urgent need for digital customer service. As we build upon a decade of innovation, this capital will further extend our reach and help even more businesses across the globe reimagine how they connect with customers digitally,” Michaeli added.

Glia believes that in an age where customers are accustomed to conversing through chat, voice, and video in their personal lives, they should be able to do the same with the businesses they work with. Glia empowers businesses to easily engage their customers and members wherever they are and co-pilot them to successful service outcomes. Founded in 2012, the Estonian-based NYC-headquartered company has powered more than 10 billion digital customer service interactions. Their clients are spread across 12 countries, but the company is focusing on expanding its geographical footprint and doubling in headcount to support the growth.

**Veriff: enabling trust online**
“Organisations and consumers needed to verify identities online more than ever before in 2021 – from onboarding remote employees to creating a safe space for gaming in the metaverse, and conducting business fully online – which makes the establishment of digital trust and transparency incredibly critical,” said Kaarel Kotkas, CEO and founder of Veriff. “The gigantic boom in digital services has increased the demand for IDV for any business online, and every person on this planet can be a user of Veriff.”

But COVID-19 has only accelerated the growth of Veriff – the business case has been there for a long time, already: While a person’s true identity might not be so crucial when selling a few books or CDs online, it becomes vital when we are talking about FinTech applications, for example. And that is where companies providing identity verification services – like Veriff – come into play.

**Gelato: printing on-demand (and more)**
In April 2020, Gelato, a company providing services to e-commerce companies, became Estonia’s eighth (and Norway’s ninth) unicorn. Gelato’s platform, with over 100 production partners in 32 countries, helps e-commerce companies link to producers close to the location of purchasers. One of the company’s founders, Mike Arbuzov, is from Estonia and Gelato also has a company registered in Estonia.

**ID.me: exporting the main idea behind Estonia’s digital success**
Digital IDs are a big thing in the United States, with millions of dollars invested in the identification businesses, one of the most recent success stories being ID.me. The company is valued at 1.4 – 1.6B U.S. dollars after its latest funding round that included participation from CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc.

If you are a Californian and log on remotely to update your address or change registration with the local DMV, there’s a good chance you’re using ID.me. And you are not the only one as the number of people using this service is growing rapidly, with about a million users added every two weeks.

ID.me was founded in 2010 as TroopSwap, a military-focused solution verifying U.S. Armed Forces veterans for discounts. The Estonian co-founder and CTO Tanel Suurhans came on board in 2013 – and this was the time when things started to change towards the ID.me we know today. What co-founder Suurhans brought along, besides great technical skills and experience from various software projects in Estonia (including planning and executing the modernisation of the largest digital content management and publishing platform used in the Baltics), was the real-life experience of using secure digital identity and e-signatures, solutions that are natural to Estonians and can be considered the key cornerstones of e-Estonia. And naturally, this proved useful when co-founding a service such as ID.me.

**Zego: creating a digital revolution in insurance and offering better prices on the way**
One of the investors of Zego and a member of its advisory board, Taavet Hinrikus (that is also co-founder of unicorn #3 – Wise), has said: “I saw that the insurance sector is facing the same as other areas – a quick onslaught of technology creating ten times better services.”

That seems to be true, looking at the way Zego handles its business – and how it has grown into a unicorn. “While most traditional insurers price their insurance products based purely on factors such as age and vehicle type, and while others may use telematics-based driver behaviour data too, Zego is able to price policies based not only on traditional factors but also driver behaviour data and working habits data,” Zego’s CEO and founder Sten Saar told TechCrunch. “In fact, overall, the information Zego can collect amounts to five times more data per vehicle than competitors, or 50 data points per second. This means that we have a much more comprehensive understanding of risk than competitors, enabling us to provide best-value insurance coverage, from policies ranging from one hour to one year”.

To date, Zego has provided more than 17 million insurance policies and covered more than 200,000 vehicles in five countries – and as the Insurance field becomes more and more digital, further growth is expected for Zego.

**Pipedrive: for those who sell from those who know how to sell**
First, we must say that we are happy customers and huge fans of Pipedrive at the Estonian Investment Agency, as the digital sales processes at our United Nations awarded agency have largely been built around it. Thanks, Pipedrive!

Founded in 2010 by Timo Rein, Urmas Purde, Ragnar Sass, Martin Henk and Martin Tajur, Pipedrive’s main selling point has been that it’s a highly intuitive sales software built by salespeople for salespeople. According to the company, 100,000+ organisations across the world use their solutions.

About 14 years ago, Pipedrive’s co-founder Ragnar Sass ventured into entrepreneurship with his first startup, United Dogs and Cats. Simply said, it was supposed to be a Facebook for … you guessed it – dogs and cats. “When it became clear that United Dogs and Cats will not continue, then in the spring of 2010, Purde and Rein contacted me about their CRM idea. Their main problem was that over half of CRM softwares were not actually used or catered to the needs of people doing the actual selling,” Sass told Life in Estonia magazine.

After exchanging emails with Purde, he discussed the idea with Henk and Tajur. The parties involved decided that the concept was valid, and they would go ahead as equal partners.

“Purde and Rein had both been in sales for many years. They started off with door-to-door sales. They had a clear vision in their heads of what kind of CRM and to whom, and why they wanted to build. They had even asked someone to draft a 50-page technical spec for what they wanted to build. We decided not to use that, so we would not limit ourselves,” Sass said.

What cannot be underestimated is the influence of Estonia’s previous unicorn builders on Pipedrive, most importantly, the influence of ex-Skypers. It is an interesting coincidence (or maybe not) that one of the backers of Pipedrive was Swedish billionaire entrepreneur Niklas Zennström that also backed Estonia’s first-ever unicorn Skype, Pipedrive being his second-ever investment in Estonia.

We can expect that in the same way as the sale of Skype triggered a frenzy of starting new companies in Estonia, the sale and unicorn status of Pipedrive will have the same effect. First success stories are already becoming visible.

**Bolt: saying goodbye to “Kitty”**
“We might have decreased the number of old-school taxi call centres − meaning dispatchers and taxi company owners − but we have given tens of thousands of drivers an opportunity to offer their services on our platform,” Markus Villig, co-founder of Bolt told Life in Estonia magazine.

Bolt (formerly known as Taxify) is a ride-sharing platform that operates in 40+ countries in Europe, Africa and South America, with thousands of drivers and millions of passengers signed up.

In 2012, Markus’s brother and another co-founder of Bolt, Martin Villig, was organising an event in Kyiv, Ukraine, and tried getting a taxi online, which turned out to be quite a hassle. He then came up with the idea of how to make ride-sharing much easier.

Markus picked the idea up and plunged into it. According to his own account, he discovered he had a lot of time on his hands during his high school final exams, so he decided to build a platform to ‘get this taxi business in order in Tallinn’. There were 30+ taxi companies in Tallinn at the time, all operating old school call centres, with an operator, often misogynistically referred to as ‘a Kitty‘, mediating the rides.

The early start was quite promising. Markus did a Google Docs survey in his school to which he received 600 answers, 90% out of which responded that there is an acute need for a new taxi platform. Nobody had even heard of Uber yet.

Markus started going through the taxi stops, and things started going a bit astray: “Of course, I had no platform to show yet and being a 19-year-old kid disturbing the drivers from reading their newspaper…” 8 out of 10 taxi drivers would yell at him to get the hell out of their cars. Also, he soon realised that his initial budget of 200 euros was simply not feasible to actually develop an online platform. A developer he had found ‘somewhere from the city’ was asking for 7,000 euros just for a prototype…

The bumpy road continued, finally taking the company to unicorn status. “My ambition from the very beginning has been building one of the biggest technology companies in Europe,” Markus Villig was not shy to announce after the big announcement was finally made. And Bolt’s ambition does not stop there – be it in making the services more user-friendly, safe to use and provide, or sustainable.

**(Transfer)Wise: Europe’s most valuable Fintech ready for further growth**
“Ten years ago, Taavet [Hinrikus] and I set out to fix international money transfers for all of us who’d been overcharged and underserved by banks,” co-founder of Wise Kristo Käärmann wrote in the TransferWise blog when announcing the rebranding of one of the most valuable startups ever founded by Estonians. “We named our idea ‘TransferWise’ — because our early customers were ‘wise’ to know their banks were charging hidden fees in exchange rate markups. Today our name catches up with who we’re already building for — a community of people and businesses with multi-currency lives.“

But what is behind Wise’s success? Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus explained to us a few years back at the technology conference Latitude59: „There is something in the soil in Estonia, which makes the Estonian people much more capable of making something great!“ He added that Estonians are used to doing things with little means – Wise being just one example of a company having been created with relatively little means but grown into a global business.

2021 will be a year of further expansion for Wise, including hiring 165 new employees for its Tallinn office. On April 1st, Reuters also announced that Wise is on course to launch an initial public offering in May 2021. The news has yet not been confirmed by the company yet, though. What we know is that Wise is not aiming to be ‘just’ a money transfer company anymore, the recent name change highlighting the company’s expanded portfolio of services.

**Playtech: becoming the world’s largest online gaming software supplier**
Playtech is the world’s largest online gaming software supplier, founded in Tartu, the second-largest city of Estonia, in 1999. The mastermind behind the start of Playtech was Cypriot-Israeli entrepreneur Teddy Sagi that wanted to bring together the best minds from gaming, technology, and multimedia to create a company without a rival. Naturally, he chose Estonia for the company’s location.

It only took two years for Sagi and his team to launch the company’s first casino – but this was just the beginning as several technology and media usage trends were taken advantage of on the way, innovating the way online gaming software is run through and through.

Just over two decades later, Playtech is on the FTSE 250 Index and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Playtech now owns over 300 gaming brands, has more than 150 global licensees and runs its offices in 19 countries around the world.

One of the key success factors for Playtech in recent years has been their ability to hire and retain top-class talent from Estonia and abroad. The employees just love Playtech – one big reason why there seems to be a bright future ahead for the gaming software supplier.

**Skype: changing the calls – and the game**
The co-founder of Wise, Taavet Hinrikus, told in an interview to CNBC a few years back that he sees the founding of Skype as one of the pivotal chapters in Estonia’s digitalisation as well as its rebirth as a haven for tech startups and entrepreneurs.

The influence of Estonia’s first unicorn and its numerous alumni is visible throughout Tallinn’s bustling startup scene and, by now, in many other parts of the economy.
Why Skype is important in the context of FDI? It is one of the early hugely successful foreign investments in Estonia’s startup ecosystem. Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis could have gone almost anywhere with their idea, but they chose Estonia, where bright minds Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn and Toivo Annus, among others, helped to make their idea a reality. The sum of 2.6 billion U.S dollars that Skype Technologies was sold to Ebay for was huge – especially in the context of Estonia in 2005.

Today, almost everybody knows what Skype is, and its current owner Microsoft still has a part of its team working on messaging and video conferencing software in Estonia.

In 2021, the president of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, awarded one of the co-founders of Skype, Niklas Zennström, a state decoration for his persistence in his activities and loyalty to the contemporary Estonian values of openness and democracy, knowledge and entrepreneurship, caring and noticing.

‘To skype’ has become a verb in English, Estonian and many other languages, meaning making calls over the internet. Of course, looking back at how things have gone, we could also consider another meaning for the verb: to start the production lines of a unicorn factory.

Estonia’s unicorn-valued companies

Since Skype, generations of Estonian founders have inspired new transformative solutions, creating a distinct culture of entrepreneurship and innovation.

With roughly the size of Milan, Estonia stands out on the European startup map with over 1,500 startups. Estonia has the highest number or startups per capita in all of Europe - 5.5x more than the European average. 

#1 in startups and unicorns per capita in Europe

Over the last five years, Estonia has made great progress in the Global Innovation Index, showing its dedication to building a strong innovation system.

Global Innovation Index

Estonia provides the perfect framework to build, launch, and grow faster. Estonia is an efficient growth accelerator to pilot solutions in real-world conditions. 

Launchpad for innovation and new technologies

The scale of investment into Europe’s tech ecosystem has grown consistently over the past decade, but once we normalise for GDP to adjust for the relative size of each country, it highlights which governments are putting tech high on the agenda. It is worth nothing that the measure is not constant in time, and looking at just this year's data would paint a different picture to the last ten year's average due to the 2021 and 2022 peak fundraising years pushing the average up.

Estonia takes the world’s top spot by the relative scale of investment in tech, with VC funding accounting for 1.17% of GDP over the past decade. Singapore and Israel take second and third place, respectively. The US ranks fourth, with local tech companies raising the equivalent of 0.53% of GDP since 2015.

While 17 of the 30 top countries in this list are from Europe, it also highlights the room for growth in many of Europe’s larger ecosystems. Notable large European countries missing from the top 30 are Spain and Italy, which are ranked 34th and 60th, respectively, behind a number of developing countries.

Venture funding in tech as share (%) of GDP

Estonia leads the investments made in tech in Europe, between 2015 to 2024. The US invested 0.53% of its GDP in technology over the last decade. The graph illustrates top 10 European countries and share of tech investments made as part of their GDP.

Estonia is the world leader in venture funding relative to GDP

According to StartupBlink's "Winners in the Artificial Intelligence Startup Industry", Estonia ranks number 6th globally with a score of 2.79, surpassing major European countries like France and Germany. 10% of Estonian startups are deeptech companies.

StartupBlink's winners of the AI Startup Industry 2024

Estonia ranks among the world’s top AI startup hubs, offering a digitally advanced ecosystem, seamless business environment, and a strong deep-tech community ready to scale innovations globally.

The smart choice for AI startups

The PISA 2022 educational survey shows that the knowledge and skills of Estonian 15-year-olds are at the absolute top in Europe and the top eight in the world, with the leading countries in Asia. Among European countries, Estonia ranks 1st-2nd in mathematics with Switzerland, 1st in science and 1st-2nd in reading with Ireland.

Education Estonia

Estonia’s education is the best in Europe

In the PISA 2022 Creative Thinking test, conducted as part of the global PISA study, Estonian students secured 1st place in Europe and ranked among the top globally.

The most creative thinkers in the world

Makers' nation

In Estonia, we believe in fairness and democracy, making us partners you can always count on. 

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democracy built on trust

Estonia is the most advanced digital democracy in the world that works to be a leading nation of the future, sharing its learnings and supporting others.

Committed to global security and unity

The Good Country Index tries to measure how much each country on earth contributes to the planet and to the human race, relative to its size (measured in GDP).

The index uses 35 reliable datasets which measure how countries affect the world outside their own borders: there are five of these in each of seven categories, covering the big issues like education, science, war and peace, trade, culture, health, censorship, the environment, freedom, etc. Most of these datasets are produced by the United Nations system and other international agencies, and a few by NGOs and other organisations.

These datasets are combined into a common measure which gives an overall ranking, a ranking in each of the seven categories, and a balance-sheet for each country that shows at a glance how much it contributes to the world and how much it takes away. The performance indicators are measured per GDP dollar, to correct for the size of each country's economy, and create a level playing field.

More technically, countries receive scores on each indicator as a fractional rank (0=top rank, 1=lowest) relative to all countries for which data is available. The category rankings are based on the mean fractional ranks on the 5 indicators per category (subject to maximum 2 missing values per category). The overall rank is based on the average of the category ranks.

Good Country Index 2024

According to the newly published Good Country Index, Estonia (ranking 9th globally) contributes more to humanity and the planet relative to their size than almost any other country on Earth.

Estonia is punching above its weight in terms of contributing to the global good

Published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the World Press Freedom Index ranks 180 countries and territories based on the level of freedom available to journalists. It assesses five key areas: political context, legal framework, economic pressures, sociocultural environment, and safety of journalists. The 2025 edition highlights growing economic fragility as a major threat to press freedom globally.

World Press Freedom Index

Estonia ranks among the world’s top countries for press freedom—proof that transparency and trust are the cornerstones of our democracy.

Among the world’s freest media

Having built an economically thriving liberal democracy and the most advanced digital society, Estonia stands out as a beacon of transparent governance, strong institutions, and democratic values.