This is one in a series of profiles on the republics of the former Soviet Union principally intended to provide basic reference material as a backdrop for assessing future developments in these new  states. The profiles provides a description of the geography, the population, and economy of Estonia and compares its level of development, growth, and social welfare to that in Finland and Sweden.

International comparisons, particularly for aggregate measures such as GNP, are difficult to make because of differences in definitions and methods used by various countries in compiling statistics. International currency exchange rates are  deficient for this purpose because they do not reflect relative purchasing power of different currencies over the whole range of output of goods and services included in GNP. Because of the lack of these parities, alternative measures have been selected. These measures include data for which comparable international statistics were available.

For the most part, official statistics in the public domain provided the data used in this profile. The Estonian Narkhoz (National Economy of Estonian SSR) was the most important source of data. Extensive use was also made of Trud v SSSR (Labor in the USSR), Sotsial'noye razvitiye v SSSR (Social Development in the USSR), and the Perepis' naseleniya (Population  Census). Reference country comparisons relied on the information found in those countries' yearbooks and in various OECD publications covering national accounts, food production, and the like. More detailed statistics are included in the appendix.