Lithuania

Lithuania (far in the 20th century usually spelled as Lithuania or Lithauen; Lithuanian: Lietuva's), officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika), is a country in Northern Europe between Latvia in the north, Belarus to the east, Poland and Russia (Kaliningrad) in the south, and the Baltic Sea in the west. Of the three Baltic states Lithuania is the largest and most southern and the only predominantly Catholic country.

The history also runs until relatively recently in sync with that of the other two Baltic countries. Otherwise than Latvia and Estonia was Lithuania ever a powerful country, that even to the Black Sea was restricted. The twentieth century was largely under Russian and Soviet regime, which is on March 11, 1990 as the first Baltic country permanently relieved. On 1 May 2004 came into the country to the European Union.

However, the country is partly dependent on Russia, in particular in the field of energy, all the attempts to change this situation by liquid gas from Norway. A geographical feature of Lithuania is that the center of Europe within the Lithuanian borders is located.

History

See History of Lithuania for the editorial on this subject.

Geography

Key Figures Cities
 * Length land borders: 1747 km (724 km with Belarus, 610 km with Latvia, 303 km with Russia (Kaliningrad exclave) and 110 km with Poland).
 * Coastline: 99 km largest rivers: Nemunas River, 475 km largest lake: Kauno Marios, 63.5 km²
 * Highest point: Aukštojas in the Highlands of, Medininkai,, 294 meters the official language is Lithuanian, although there Polish, Russian and Belarussian minorities.
 * Currency: The Euro

See List of cities in Lithuania for the editorial on this subject.

Some cities in Lithuania with number of inhabitants per January 1, 2014: Political
 * Vilnius 529.000 inhabitants
 * Kaunas 304.000 inhabitants
 * Klaipėda 157.000 inhabitants
 * Šiauliai 106.000 inhabitants
 * Panevėžys 96.000 inhabitants

Government The remaining 70 are distributed in proportion to the national proportions.
 * The Republic of Lithuania is a parliamentary democracy with a president Dalia Grybauskaitė since July 12, 2009 and prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius since december 13, 2012. The Lithuanian government consists of a coalition of DP, LSDP,111NS and VNDS. The parliament (Seimas) has one room with 141 members with a four-year term. The Seimas-seats are there 71 divided among the seven constituencies.

Administrative classification

See Administrative classification of Lithuania for the editorial on this subject.

Lithuania is divided into ten districts, which are named after their capital.

Population Nationality * % of the Polish population Lithuanian 83,4% 6,7% Russian 6.3% Others 3.6% The Polish minority is concentrated in the south-east of the country. This part of Lithuania was between the two world wars to the Second Polish Republic. The Russian minority mainly dating from the time that Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union (1940-1990). The ethnic Russians are mainly in the cities. After the death of Stalin in 1953 took the Lithuanian SSR attempts to restrict the immigration of ethnic Russians. In Lithuania, the share of the Russians in the total population significantly lower than in Estonia and Latvia.
 * between the census of 2001 and that of 2011, the population fell from 3.48 million to 2.98 million inhabitants. This was caused by emigration to Western Europe, thus the Lithuanian Statistical Office. Population density per municipality 1 - >= 60 int. /km² 2 - 40-59,9 int. /km² 3 - 30-39,9 int. /km² 4 - 20-29,9 int. /km² 5 - 0-19,9 int. /km² Population: 3,515,858 living In Lithuania (2013) people. Demographics in 2001:

Language Mother Tongue * number of
 * Lithuanian mother tongue speak approximately 2,700,000 inhabitants. The Lithuanian belongs to the Baltic languages which also the Latvian belongs.

Lithuanian * approx. 2,700,000

Polish * approx. 360,000

Russian * approx. 344,000

Belorussian * approx. 63,000

Ukrainian * approx. 45,000

Tatar languages * approx. 5,000

Latvian * approx. 5,000

Karamisch * approx. 300

Education and unemployment
 * Lithuania has a relatively high percentage graduate employees, but there are also many high unemployment among graduates.

Economy
 * In 2011 was the economy of Lithuania eur 31 billion. The gross domestic product (GDP) is in relation to the year 2000 more than doubled. The GDP per head of the population was 62% of the European average, but in 2000 it was still in a little more than 40 %.

Currency
 * In July 2014, EU Commissioner Olli Rehn to the finance ministers of the EU for Lithuania to the litas in exchange for the euro. This is on January 1, 2015 happened. Lithuania complies with all the criteria; the inflation rate is low and the budget deficit is 2.1% of the gross domestic product and the public debt 39 %. Both are well below the Maastricht convergence criteria of respectively 3% and 60 %.

Traffic
 * The Lithuanian sewerage infrastructure is still under construction. The main connections are the motorways (Vilnius - Kaunas - Klaipeda (dt. Nemunas River) and Vilnius - Panevėžys. In Klaipeda is one of the major seaports with passengers of the entire Baltic Sea. The harbor is the whole year de-icing. Ships not longer than 250 meters and a maximum depth of 13.5 meters can use the port. There are rail and motorway networks for the transport to and from the hinterland.

Tourism
 * tourism is slowly emerging in Lithuania. One of the main tourist attractions is the castle and town of Trakai Castle, west of Vilnius, in the middle of the many lakes in the nature park Trakai Castle. The castle is built in a typical style for Lithuania: reddish brown brick, round towers and red roofs. The old town of Vilnius which is protected by the UNESCO has dozens of old churches and buildings.