About country

Background
Independent between the two World Wars, Lithuania was annexed by the USSR in 1940. On 11 March 1990, Lithuania became the first of the Soviet republics to declare its independence, but Moscow did not recognize this proclamation until September of 1991 (following the abortive coup in Moscow). The last Russian troops withdrew in 1993. Lithuania subsequently restructured its economy for integration into Western European institutions; it joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Population
3,585,906 (July 2006)

Age structure
0-14 years: 15.5% (male 284,888/female 270,458)
15-64 years: 69.1% (male 1,210,557/female 1,265,542)
65 years and over: 15.5% (male 190,496/female 363,965) (2006)

Population growth rate
-0.3% (2006)

Birth rate
8.75 births/1,000 population (2006)

Net migration rate
-0.71 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006)

Infant morality rate
total: 6.78 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 8.12 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 5.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006)

Total fertility rate
1.2 children born/woman (2006)

Ethnic groups
Lithuanian 83.4%, Polish 6.7%, Russian 6.3%, other or unspecified 3.6% (2001 census)

Religions
Roman Catholic 79%, Russian Orthodox 4.1%, Protestant (including Lutheran and Evangelical Christian Baptist) 1.9%, other or unspecified 5.5%, none 9.5% (2001 census)

Languages
Lithuanian (official) 82%, Russian 8%, Polish 5.6%, other and unspecified 4.4% (2001 census)

GDP - real growth rate
7.5% (2005)

GDP - per capita
$13,700 (2005)

Unemployment rate
4.8% (2005)