The estimated total population of Lithuania is about 3.4 million. Approximately 81 percent of the total population is ethnic Lithuanian; ethnic Russians comprise approximately nine percent of the total population. Other resident ethnic groups include Poles and Byelorussians.
While Lithuanian is the official language, Polish and Russian are also spoken.
In terms of religious affiliation, most ethnic Lithuanians and ethnic Poles belong to the Roman Catholic Church, but a sizable minority of residents are Russian Orthodox. Other religious groups include Lutherans and other Protestants, Evangelical Christians, Baptists, Muslims and Jews.
Human Development
Lithuanians, according to recent estimates, have an average life expectancy at birth of 69 years of age (65 years for males, 73 years for females). The infant mortality rate is 14.34 deaths per 1,000 live births. In terms of literacy, an estimated 98 percent of the population, age 15 and older, can read and write (99 percent of males, 98 percent of females). About 4.7 percent of GDP is spent in the country on educational expenditures. About 7.8 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Access to sanitation, water, and health care is considered to be generally good.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI places Lithuania in the high human development category, at 44th place. Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief,
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