Lithuania

Full name of country: Republic of Lithuania

Region: Europe

Official language: Lithuanian

Population: 2,628,186 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Lithuanian(s) (noun), Lithuanian (adjective)

Land area: 62,680 sq km (24,201 sq miles)

Water area: 2,620 sq km (1,012 sq miles)

Capital: Vilnius

National anthem: “Tautiska giesme” (The National Song), by Vincas Kudirka

National holiday: Independence Day, February 16 (1918); note—February 16, 1918 was the date Lithuania declared its independence from Soviet Russia and established its statehood; March 11, 1990 was the date it declared its independence from the Soviet Union

Population growth: -1.05% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC +2

Flag: The flag of Lithuania depicts three horizontal bands of color that are equal in size: one yellow, one green, and one red. Each color represents either a national virtue or a physical element related to Lithuania’s people and history. Red represents both courage and the blood shed during the nation’s struggle for independence; yellow represents the country’s wheat fields and the sun; and green represents the ideal of hope and Lithuania’s forests.

Independence: March 11, 1990 (declared); September 6, 1991 (recognized by the Soviet Union); notable earlier dates: July 6, 1253 (coronation of Mindaugas, traditional founding date), July 1, 1569 (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth created), February 16, 1918 (from Soviet Russia and Germany)

Government type: semi-presidential republic

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: civil law system; legislative acts can be appealed to the Constitutional Court

Located on the shore of the Baltic Sea in central Europe, Lithuania traces its history back to the first Indo-European tribes, which settled the area in 2000 BCE and intermarried to become the Balts. The Balts are mentioned in Roman documents of the first century, and were early traders in the amber that washes up on Curonian Spit. Baltic longevity, though, has been tempered by a long history of conflict. Lithuania’s strategic location on the Baltic Sea at the geographical center of Europe’s great trading and military routes has made the country a temptation for two thousand years worth of empires.

In 1990, Lithuania became the first of the three Baltic Republics to declare its independence from the Soviet Union. Since 1990, the small republic has restructured itself for integration into Western Europe. Lithuania joined the United Nations in 1991, and joined both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union in 2004.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: Lithuania’s population is roughly 84.6 percent ethnic Lithuanian, 6.5 percent Polish, 5 percent Russian, and about 1 percent Belarusian (2021 estimates). The remainder of the population descends from other, mostly European backgrounds.

Lithuania is predominantly Roman Catholic, although the country also has members of Lutheran, Russian Orthodox, Evangelical Christian Baptist, Muslim, and Jewish religious faiths. The Romuva movement, based in Vilnius and Kraunas, practices a pagan religion based on current interpretations of early Baltic folk myth and practices.

Life expectancy in Lithuania is 76.1 years at birth; 70.8 for men and 81.7 for women (2024 estimates). With a low birth rate and ongoing migration from the country, the nation’s population was not expected to grow. Infant mortality is low at 3.6 deaths per 1,000 live births (2024 estimate). Literacy rates are high: about 99.8 percent of the adult population is considered literate (2021 estimate).

The transition from Soviet republic to independent capitalist nation has put minimal pressure on quality of life in Lithuania. Unemployment, which rose to 11 percent during Russia’s economic crisis in the mid-1990s, later dropped to about 8 percent, though it rose again after the 2008 global financial crisis. By 2023, the unemployment rate was estimated to be 6.96 percent. Lithuania ranked at 37 out of 193 countries and territories (based on data for 2021) on the 2022 United Nations Human Development Index.

In addition to Lithuanian, the country’s official language, Polish and Russian are also commonly spoken.

Indigenous People: Ethnic Lithuanians are descended from the Balts, a people who migrated to the shores of the Baltic Sea around 2000 BCE.

During the twelfth century, the primary Baltic tribes living in the area that is now Lithuania were the Samogitians in the west and the Aukstaitiai in the east. United under the Catholic King Jogaila during the fourteenth century, the two tribes found themselves linked to the Polish by the marriage of King Jogaila to the Polish Crown Princess. The royal marriage was the prelude to formal union in the 1569 Treaty of Lublin.

As a result of the longstanding ties to Poland, Lithuania’s Baltic culture had a strong Polish influence, particularly among Lithuania’s upper classes. After an invasion by Russia’s Ivan the Terrible in 1558, however, Lithuania and its Polish counterpart entered into a 450-year course of fighting off Russian, German, and Swedish territorial expansion and cultural influence.

In spite of its troubled political history, or perhaps because of it, Lithuanians are some of the most ethnically homogeneous people in Europe. Most of the country speaks High Lithuanian, though speakers in the west speak a dialect called Low Lithuanian. The language itself is one of only two surviving branches of the early Baltic languages. A written mention of Lithuanian dating back to 1009 makes it one of the earliest European languages, as well.

Education: Lithuania’s educational system requires all students to attend school from age five to sixteen. Under the national system, elementary school lasts for four years, until age ten, followed by basic (lower secondary) school until age sixteen, and upper secondary school until age eighteen for those who are eligible proceed on to higher education.

During secondary school, students may either study at traditional academic institutions (gimnajiza) or at one of the technical, vocational, or training institutes. The country has one of the highest rates of citizens who have completed higher education.

Lithuania has several universities and research institutions. Vilnius Saint Joseph Seminary is one of the country’s few Catholic institutions. Private programs, usually run through the universities, offer adult education classes.

Public education in Lithuania is free through the secondary programs. University students must pay fees, but scholarships and bursaries are available. The government subsidizes the universities.

Almost all education in Lithuania is conducted in the Lithuanian language. However, a select number of schools also teach in Polish or Russian.

Health Care: Until Lithuania attained its independence in 1990, health care was provided through the Soviet Union’s centralized health system. In the years immediately following independence, illness and disease rates rose in the country as government officials strove to replace the old Soviet system.

Lithuania developed a mandatory health insurance system, which provides care for most medical and some psychological and psychiatric conditions. Lithuania’s Ministry of Health has also prioritized preventative programs, including educational programs targeting the spread of HIV/AIDS through sexual contact, and policies promoting physical activity and nutrition to fight heart disease, obesity, and depression. The government has also been working to reduce tobacco and alcohol consumption in the country.

In addition to these health concerns, Lithuania is contending with the increased costs of an aging population (Lithuania’s median age was 45.1 years as of 2024 estimates) and the long-term health effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in neighboring Belarus.

Food: Lithuanian meals tend to be hearty, generally involving meats (especially pork), dairy products, and potatoes, often in the form of potato pancakes. The traditional cepelinai, for instance, involves topping potato dough with cheese, meat, or mushrooms and a sour cream sauce. Other traditional dishes include smoked meat (skilandis), cold beet soup (ðaltibarðèai), stuffed potato dumplings (cepelinai), védarai (potato sausages) and Lithuania’s famous potato pancakes (bulviniai blynai).

Lithuanians produce local beers, mead, and stakliskis, a honey liqueur. They also enjoy their desserts. Traditional cakes, pastries, and ice cream are all popular, in addition to a specialized fruitcake called kisielius.

Arts & Entertainment: Lithuanian folk art is famous for its carved wooden crosses, suns, weathercocks, and saints that mark village centers, churchyards, and other significant locations. Although banned during Soviet occupation in the twentieth century, the carvings remain a characteristic part of the Lithuanian landscape.

Over the years, Lithuania has developed a literary canon. Twentieth-century poet Jonas Maciulis (called Maironis) is regarded as the founder of modern Lithuanian literature, but Kristijonas Donelaitis is famous for an earlier work called “Metai” (The Seasons), a poem about eighteenth-century serfdom. Polish writer and Nobel Prize winner Czesław Miłosz was born in Lithuania.

An anomaly amongst its European neighbors, Lithuania is famous for its basketball players. Lithuanian legend Steponas Darius introduced the game after a trip to the United States in the 1920s. Since then, the game has become a focal point in the government’s efforts to promote athletics and physical activity for the health of its population. Basketball clubs thrive throughout the country along with soccer, body-building, track and field, boxing, weightlifting, judo, volleyball, rowing, wrestling, cycling, sailing, swimming, and tennis.

Folk music has become an essential part of Lithuanian ethnic identity. Every four years, choirs and folk dance groups gather from all over the globe for the World Lithuanian Song Festival, held in July. Folk music is broken into groupings that indicate a song’s purpose, including songs for mourning, celebration, work, or religious occasions. Traditional instruments include the daudyté, a wooden trumpet, the stringed kanklés, the skrabalai, small wooden bells, and wooden panpipes called the skuduèiai. Women usually perform the folk dances, although polkas and waltzes include both men and women.

Lithuania’s troubled history has produced a tradition of emigrants, who have sent back cultural traditions and styles from throughout the world. Modern jazz has found its way into the heart of Lithuanian culture, producing world-renowned artists and the International Jazz Festival in Kaunas every April.

Holidays: Lithuania celebrates New Year’s Day, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Easter, and All Saints Day. On Defenders of Freedom Day (January 13), Lithuanians honor the demonstrators killed by Soviet troops in 1991 when Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. The country’s troubled history is further reflected in its two independence days. Independence Day (February 16) commemorates the 1918 Declaration of Independence. March 11 marks the restoration of Lithuania’s statehood in 1990.

On the Day of Mourning and Hope (June 14), Lithuanians remember the first mass deportation to Siberia under Stalin in 1941. Mindaugus, first King of Lithuania, is honored on the Day of Statehood (July 6). Black Ribbon Day commemorates the 1939 Russian-Nazi pact that prompted the invasion of Lithuania at the beginning of World War II, and the Day of Nation honors Vytautus the Great, the fifteenth-century king who ruled during Lithuania’s golden age.

Environment and Geography

Topography: Lithuania is predominantly flat. The Baltic coastline rises to 66 meters (216 feet) along the thin 98-kilometer (61-mile) long Curonian Spit, but otherwise sits just above sea level. Running parallel to the coastline, the Spit creates a sheltered waterway along the Lithuanian shore.

Lithuania’s interior includes uplands dotted with small lakes. The hilly uplands are also at relatively low elevations. Lithuania reaches its highest point at Kruopine Hill, which rises to a modest 294 meters (964 feet). The soil is rich and fertile throughout Lithuania. The Neris and the Nenumas Rivers weave their way through the southern portion of the country, meeting at Kaunas.

About 34.6 percent of Lithuania is covered in woodlands (2018 estimate), although just under a third of that area is young forests.

Climate: Temperatures in Lithuania’s moderate climate range from highs of 14° to 22° Celsius (57° to 72° Fahrenheit) during the late spring and summer months, but rarely rise above 4° Celsius (39° Fahrenheit) between March and November.

Annual precipitation (rain, ice, and snow) is a modest 66 centimeters (26 inches), although averages increase to 90 centimeters (35 inches) in some areas of the uplands and decrease to 52 centimeters (21 inches) in the northern part of the country. However, by the 2020s Lithuania continued to experience the effects of climate change, including severe drought.

Economy

In the aftermath of the 1998 Russian economic crisis, Lithuania joined the World Trade Organization and the European Union, and the economy has shown promising signs of growth. The country adopted the euro currency in 2015, replacing the Lithuanian litas.

In 2023, Lithuania’s gross domestic product (GDP; purchasing power parity) was estimated at about US$132.712 billion . The per capita GDP was estimated at US$46,200.

Industry: Lithuania’s largest industries include petroleum refining, shipbuilding, furniture production, textile manufacturing, and food processing. Important manufactured products include agricultural machinery, electronic components, electric motors, television sets, refrigerators and freezers, and fertilizers.

Agriculture: The mineral rich soil of the Baltic lowlands provides fertile ground for the harvesting of grain, potatoes, sugar beets, flax, and vegetables. Lithuanian farms also produce significant quantities of beef, milk, and eggs. In coastal waters of the Baltic, fishing remains an important industry.

Tourism: Lithuania’s tourism industry remains small and generally limited to visitors from neighboring countries. Government proposals to boost tourism through the improvement of transportation to and within the country have been underway.

Government

Although Lithuania has been a distinct political state since at least the fourteenth century, the modern Lithuanian nation first gained its independence on November 11, 1918, when its German occupiers surrendered at the end of World War I. The Lithuanian Republic that was established on that day immediately came under attack. Polish troops invaded Vilnius in 1919, taking the capital city. In 1920, the Russian government recognized Lithuanian independence for the first time, but a military coup in 1926 left the country under a fascist-style military rule.

On August 23, 1939, the Russian government signed a non-aggression treaty known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in which Lithuania was parceled out to Nazi Germany. Lithuania’s refusal to participate in the invasion of Poland prompted Nazi and Soviet leaders to move Lithuania to the Soviet sphere of influence. Lithuania became a Soviet republic soon afterward, but was invaded by the Nazis a year later. Almost all of Lithuania’s Jewish population was murdered between 1941 and 1944, when the Soviet Red Army invaded again.

Lithuania remained part of the Soviet Union until 1990. Defying a Soviet government under Mikhail Gorbachev, Lithuania became the first Eastern European country to legalize non-communist political parties. Thirteen Lithuanian protestors died when the Soviet military stormed key public buildings in Vilnius. With the August 1991 coup against Gorbachev, Lithuania seized its independence. The Soviet government formally recognized the independent Lithuanian Republic one month later. Ten days after that, Lithuania became a member of the United Nations.

The Republic of Lithuania is run as a semi-presidential republic. Lithuanians elect their president by popular vote for a five-year term in office. The president chooses a prime minister with approval from Parliament.

The Parliament, or Seimas, has 141 members, seventy-one of whom are elected by direct popular vote and seventy of whom are elected by proportional representation. All Seimas members serve four-year terms.

Interesting Facts

• Founded by Jesuits in 1579, Vilnius University is the oldest higher learning institution in the Baltic region, and was at the center of Europe’s counter-reformation movement.
• Women attained full political rights in Lithuania in 1918, two years before women in the United States won the right to vote. A woman served as the chair of the first Lithuanian Parliament in 1920.
• The geographic center of Europe is located in Lithuania at a spot on the road between Vilnius and Moletai.
• In 2015, Lithuania was the last of the Baltic states to adopt the euro, after Estonia and Latvia.
• In 2018, Lithuania celebrated one hundred years of restored statehood.
• After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Lithuania became the first European country to cease the use of gas imported from Russia.

Bibliography

“General Education.” Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education, SKVC, 2023, www.skvc.lt/default/en/education-in-lithuania/general. Accessed 16 Oct. 2023.

Human Development Report 2021/2022. United Nations Development Programme 2022, 13 Mar,2024, hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2021-22pdf‗1.pdf. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.

“Lithuania.” The World Bank, 2024, data.worldbank.org/country/lithuania. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.

“Lithuania.” The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 15 Jan 2025, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/lithuania/. Accessed 21 Jan 2025.

“Lithuania.” World Health Organization, www.who.int/countries/ltu/en/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2023.