D is for Demographics

According to the last census, taken in 2005, this is the make up of the population in Lithuania. Since joining the EU in May 2004, tens of thousands of Lithuanian residents have left to work in Western Europe and America. Population decline is a regular news story. Therefore the figures aren't entirely accurate. Only time will tell how many of these people will return to Lithuania in the future.

Ethnicity Total
Total 3483972
Lithuanian 2907293
Pole 234989
Russian 219789
Belarussian 42866
Ukrainian 22488
Jew 4007
German 3243
Tatar 3235
Latvian 2955
Roma (Gipsy) 2571
Armenian 1477
Azerbaijan 788
Moldovan 704
Georgian 437
Estonian 419
Karaite 273
Chuvash 264
Other 3253
Not indicated 32921

I’m assuming that most people don’t know who the Karaites are. In general, Karaism is a form of Jewish religious belief. The Karaites in Lithuania originate from the Crimea and speak a Turkic language. Around the late 14th Century AD, Grand Duke Vytautas invited several hundred Karaite warriors to be part of his personal guard at his castle and capital in the town of Trakai. This is were most of the Karaite community still live and today it is possible to visit one of their religious buildings called a Kenesa (When I went, the man who opened the door, spoke to me in a language I didn’t understand – so I think he was a Karaite, or drunk).

I’ve never met a Chuvash, but I suppose I wouldn’t know one if I did. The Chuvash are a Turkic people, predominantly Orthodox Christian. I currently don’t know enough about them to know where they have come from and why they are in Lithuania, but most Chuvash people live in Chuvashia, a region of Russia 600 km east of Moscow. Are you Chuvash? Let me know.

The “other” includes various amounts of Ex-pats. Interestingly enough, the French lead the way in Vilnius with having the largest ex-pat community. They haven’t been invited by the president to be his security, rather, in my experience of French people here, they are living out their retirement, studying, working for international companies and of course, falling in love.
Apart from the Café de Paris, you won’t really notice the French presence on the streets This is until France are playing rugby or football. Then you realise just how many there are as they squeeze into the Irish Bar to watch big screen sport.

From personal experience, I can also tell you there are 3 Egyptians living in Lithuania, until recently 2 Bangladeshis and a handful of Pakistanis.

The data above was taken from the Lithuania Department of Statistics, available in English at http://www.stat.gov.lt/en/
Apologies for not posting the proper table, I couldn't figure out how to get it to look right.