his study examines how the Baltic States sought to count their populations by nationality,
language, and religion in their first censuses since reestablishing their independence in 1991.1
In the
context of regaining national independence, and the rapid changes in their economies since then, the
Baltic States are all concerned to take stock of their population characteristics and change over time.
One of the most important features of the population in which they are interested is the ethnic
composition.
Avoiding or ameliorating ethnic conflict is vitally important to the political stability and
growth of democracy in post-Soviet states. Ethnic relations in all the successor states are also
subject to broad scrutiny – no less by leaders of communal groups and human rights organizations
within the countries than international agencies and foreign governments. Programs of “social
integration” have become an especially important focus in countries that are seeking accession to the
European Union (EU). Integration involves a rapprochement between members of different ethnic
groups and full engagement of minorities into the political and economic life of the country. It also
requires both de jure and de facto equality among members of different nationalities.
Monitoring societal integration requires accurate information on the political, social, and
economic life and behavior of the population. In the absence of a well-developed population
register, censuses are the only authoritative count of the population. Nobody can gauge whether
rates of fertility, mortality, education, employment, crime, or voting participation differ by ethnic
group unless they have access to reliable data on the number of people in the underlying population
by age, sex, and ethnicity.
All the Baltic countries departed substantially from the model of the last Soviet census as
well as the then-planned Russian census. Despite their geographical contiguity, shared historicalexperience of Soviet annexation, and strategic and economic regional cooperation, the three Baltic
countries adopted different approaches toward nationality, language, and religion in their censuses.