The latest integration survey commissioned by the Ministry of Culture looked at the use of different languages in the workplace and assessed the extent to which non-Estonians use Estonian in their private lives.

About half of the Estonian population speaks Russian, and 39 percent of Estonians work in a job where Russian is also used.

Estonians have a quite good command of English as well. About 53 percent of ethnic Estonians and 32 percent of non-Estonians are speaking English fluently.

Of all the other languages, English is by far the most widely spoken in Estonia, with 84 percent having at least a passive command of the language.

Besides English and Russian, the most widely used other languages in Estonia are Finnish, spoken or understood by 19 percent of Estonians and 6 percent of people of other ethnicities and/or nationalities, and Ukrainian, spoken or understood by 0.6 percent of Estonians and 13 percent of people of other ethnicities and/or nationalities.

About 82 percent of workforce use Estonian at work, 62 percent use Russian, and 43 percent use English at work, with 25 percent using all three languages. A small proportion of residents also use Ukrainian and Finnish at work. The use of a language in this survey means the ability to communicate with colleagues and customers, or, for example, work with documents in different languages.

Among ethnic Estonians, 47 percent use English at work (or in education), and 39 percent use Russian.

About 58 percent of ethnic Estonians work in an Estonian-speaking environment. This includes 35 percent who use only Estonian at work and 23 percent who use both Estonian and English. About 2 percent use only Russian and 1 percent use only English.

About 37 percent of ethnic Estonians use both Estonian and Russian at work, and 23 percent use all three languages: Estonian, Russian and English.

Two-thirds, or 67 percent, of people of other ethnicities and/or nationalities use Estonian at work, and 86 percent use only Russian.

The Estonian language is most commonly used by office workers, customer service representatives, and salespeople – 73 percent. It is used by 69 percent of managers and specialists and by 52 percent of unskilled workers.

Among people with a good knowledge of Estonian, 90 percent use Estonian at work, and about 40 percent of people with a passive command of Estonian use it professionally.

A slightly smaller proportion – 39 percent – use both English and Estonian at work. Less than a third – 29 percent – of people of other ethnicities/nationalities work in a Russian-only environment, including 48 percent of unskilled workers and 26 percent of managers and professionals. Only 3 percent of people in Estonia work in an English-only environment only.

While more than two-thirds of people of other ethnicities and/or nationalities use Estonian at work, fewer use Estonian for communication outside the workplace - just over one-quarter, or 27 percent, communicate in Estonian both at work and privately. At the same time, 10 percent of people (other ethnicities than Estonian) who do not use Estonian at work still communicate in Estonian outside of work.

About 41 percent do not use Estonian in their active communication outside of work. The exact wording of the question was "What languages do you use in your leisure time, i.e. with friends, acquaintances, neighbors, etc.,?" – which emphasizes the active use of Estonian in communication, and may underestimate the use of the language in other forms, e.g. reading, watching the media.

Thus, although more than two-thirds of people of other nationalities use Estonian at work, this does not carry over to the private sphere to the same extent. The only regions where the Estonian language is clearly dominant are those with a clear majority of Estonians.

People of other ethnicities and/or nationalities clearly value the instrumental aspects of knowing Estonian as a second language more than the culturally unifying aspects associated with it, including those who belong to the fully integrated group and who have learned Estonian in an Estonian school environment.

This indicates the need to better link language acquisition with interpersonal interaction and practical participation in the Estonian cultural space.

About 35 percent of people of other ethnicities and/or nationalities living in Estonia do not communicate in Estonian at all, either privately, at work, or at school. Most of them live in the predominantly Russian-speaking easternmost county and typically have only a passive knowledge of the language.

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