Nearly 6,000 people in Estonia switched registered ethnicity from Russian to Estonian last year
In 2025, 5,782 people in Estonia changed their registered ethnicity from Russian to Estonian. Statistics Estonia says it cannot explain why, as no reason has to be given.
In Estonia, 5,782 people changed their registered ethnicity from Russian to Estonian in 2025, out of 9,632 ethnicity changes in total, the weekly Maaleht reported. In Estonia, ethnicity is a personal identity marker rather than a legal status, so it is distinct from citizenship. Some observers link the rise to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began nearly five years ago.
How the change works
The switch can be made online through the population e-register, and no reason has to be given. The most common age for changing ethnicity is 17. For that reason, Statistics Estonia says it cannot say why people do it. Enel Pungas of the Interior Ministry said choosing one's ethnicity is a personal matter and that it has been possible to record it online since about 2005.
Kadri Rootalu, head of population and education statistics at Statistics Estonia, said Harju County gained nearly 3,000 Estonians this way in 2025, and Ida-Viru County nearly 800. Over five years, 27,934 people have changed their ethnicity. The change also goes the other way: last year 1,060 people registered as Estonian switched to Russian.
Experts and politicians
Raivo Vetik, professor of comparative politics at Tallinn University, stressed that a formal change does not automatically mean a change in identity. In a 2025 study of 1,991 residents with undetermined citizenship, only 21 percent called themselves Russian, 44 percent preferred "Russian-speaking Estonians" and 18 percent "Estonian Russians".
Katri Raik, a former Narva mayor and interior minister, said people began emphasizing a Russian-speaking Estonian identity after the war began, because being Russian seemed to imply a link to the regime waging it.
Mart Helme, an MP for EKRE, the Conservative People's Party of Estonia, asked in the Riigikogu whether the ministry collects data on these changes. Interior Minister Igor Taro of the Eesti 200 party replied that security threats do not arise from how someone identifies their ethnicity, that no separate statistics are kept, and that the trend more likely reflects a wish to integrate.
