Asiatic States of Eastern Europe, Economic Profile

By Donna Welles.

 

 Edgar Savisaar Mayor of Tallinn, Estonia.

Edgar Savisaar
Mayor of Tallinn, Estonia.

 

Yesterday Tallinn sacked its Mayor, Edgar Savisaar, and arrested him on suspicion of taking bribes. Estonia is not an Indo-European nation, rather it is Asiatic and closely related to Finland and Hungary. Allow us to examine these Asiatic nations in Eastern Europe by way of their social and economic indicators.

Finland has the highest life expectancy of the group, 81 years from birth. Both Estonia and Hungary have lower life expectancies than I would have thought, 76 and 75 years. It is possible the Estonian figure is affected by ethnic Russians left over from the Soviet Era; it is possible the Hungarian figure is affected by ethnic Slavic peoples left over from the Soviet Era. Estonia, Finland, and Hungary all have Western European social behaviors.

Hungary has the largest population of the group, roughly 10m people. Finland’s population as of 2014 was 6m and Estonia’s was 2m. By contrast, France reported 66m, the United Kingdom reported 65m, and Sweden reported 10m.

Finland and Estonia sit better in terms of unemployment than Hungary. Hungary reported an unemployment rate of 10% in 2013; Finland reported 8% and Estonia reported 9%. By contrast, the United Kingdom and Sweden both reported 8% and France reported 10%.

Paris and London are much larger than Budapest, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Tallinn. Each of the latter cities have less than 2m people.

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