LITHUANIA
GENERAL DATA
Geographical location: / Eastern Europe, on the eastern coast of the Baltic SeaArea: / 65 300 sq. km (country comparison to the world 122)
land: / 62 680 sq. km
water: / 2 620 sq. km
Land boundaries: / 1 574 km
border countries: / Russian Federation (Kaliningrad region) 227 km, Belarus 680 km, Latvia 576 km, Poland 91 km
Population: / 3 555 179 (country comparison to the world 130)
Natural growth rate: / -0,279%
Net migration rate: / -0,72 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Life expectation: / 74,9 years (country comparison to the world 87)
males: / 69,98 years
females: / 80,1 years
Nationality: / Lithuanian
Ethnic groups: / Lithuanians 83,4%, Polish 6,7%, Russians 6,3%, other 3,6%
Religions: / Roman Catholics 79%, Russian Orthodox 4%, Old believers 0,8%, Evangelical Lutherans 0,6%, Evangelical Reformists 0,2% and others
Education expenditures: / 5% of GDP (country comparison to the world 71)
POLITICS
Country name: / Republic of Lithuania (Lithuania)Government type: / Parliamentary republic
Capital: / Vilnius
Administrativedivisions: / 10 districts (Alytaus, Kauno, Klaipėdos, Marijampolės, Panevėžio, Šiaulių, Tauragės, Telšių, Utenos, Vilniaus); 60 municipalities
Independence: / Proclaimed February 16, 1918; re-established March 11, 1990
National Holiday: / Independence Day (16th of February); Nation Day (6th of July)
Constitution: / Adopted October 25, 1992
Executive power:
Chief of State: / President Dalia GRYBAUSKAITE (since 17 May 2009). The President is elected for 5 year term by the general vote; (next to be held 2014)
Head of Government: / Prime Minister Andrius KUBILIUS (since 9 December, 2008).The Prime Ministers are appointed and dismissed by the President with the approval of Seimas. Ministers are appointed and dismissed by the President upon the presentation by the Prime Minister
Legislative power: / Unicameral Parliament or Seimas (141 seats; 71 members are elected by popular vote, 70 are elected by proportional representation; serve four-year terms). The last elections held 12 October 2008 (next to be held in 2012)
Judicial power:
/ Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, Court of Appeal; judges for all courts appointed by the PresidentECONOMY
GDP(ppp*): / 54,84mlrd. USD (country comparison to the world 88)GDP growth: / -15%
GDP per capita (ppp*): / 15 400 USD (country comparison to the world 72)
GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: / 4,4%
industry: / 27%
services: / 68,8%
Inflation rate: / 8,1%
Labor force: / 1,656 mln.
Labor force by occupation:
agriculture: / 14%
industry: / 29,1%
services: / 56,9%
Unemployment rate: / 13,7%
State Budget:
revenues: / 13,09 mlrd USD
expenditures: / 16,62 mlrd. USD
Exports: / 16,1 mlrd. USD (country comparison to the world 69)
Exports commodities: / mineral products 22%, machinery and equipment 10%, chemicals 9%, textiles 7%, plastics 7%, foodstuffs 7%
Export countries: / Russia 13,2%, Latvia 10%, Germany 9,6%, Poland 7,1%, Estonia 7,1%, Belarus 4,9%, UK 4,3%
Imports: / 17,84 mlrd. USD (country comparison to the world 72)
Imports commodities: / mineral products, machinery and equipment, transport equipment, chemicals, textiles and clothing, metals
Import countries: / Russia 24,4%, Germany 14,9%, Poland 9,5%, Latvia 4,8%, Netherlands 3,7%, Italy 3,4%, Sweden 3,3%
Foreign debt:
/ 36.43 mlrd. USDNational currency: / Litas (LTL) (from June 25, 1993)
*purchasing power parity
AGRICULTURE
Total land area and land usage (in thousand hectares) 2009
Totalland
area / Agriculturalland / Of which:
Arable
land / Orchads and berry plantation / Meadows and natural pastures
Total land area / 6530,0 / 3465,3 / 2930,1 / 59,7 / 475,5
Agricultural land
/ 3955,5 / 3364,1 / 2879,4 / 42,6 / 442,0Privateland / 3016,1 / 2655,2 / 2329,6 / 34,5 / 291,1
land of natural and legal entities / 3001,9 / 2641,6 / 2329,2 / 21,4 / 291,0
land owned by
horticult. associations / 14,2 / 13,6 / 0,4 / 13,1 / 0,1
State land / 939,3 / 708,8 / 549,7 / 8,1 / 151,0
land of households / 124,2 / 120,9 / 94,5 / 1,6 / 24,8
land of agricult. partnerships, state enterprises leased from the state / 93,9 / 73,2 / 60,2 / 1,7 / 11,3
land of natural entities leased from the state / 330,0 / 319,6 / 251,9 / 0,9 / 66,8
land used by horticulturist
associations / 6,7 / 2,4 / 0,1 / 1,9 / 0,4
land not granted for
usage or leased / 384,5 / 192,7 / 143,0 / 2,0 / 47,7
Land of forestry
/ 1969,6 / 24,1 / 8,1 / 0,2 / 15,8Privateland / 648,4 / 12,5 / 4,6 / 0,1 / 7,8
State land / 1321,2 / 11,6 / 3,5 / 0,1 / 8,0
Land for aquaculture / 176,3 / - / - / - / -
Conservation land / 43,2 / 0,9 / 0,1 / - / 0,8
Other land / 381,0 / 74,8 / 41,8 / 16,7 / 16,3
Land of other users / 4,4 / 1,4 / 0,7 / 0,1 / 0,6
Gross agricultural production (at current prices, in million LTL)
2006 / 2007 / 2008All farms (total agricultural production)
/ 4913,0 / 6912,2 / 7340,0Crop production
/ 2279,3 / 3980,1 / 4125,5Animal production / 2633,7 / 2932,1 / 3214,5
Farmers and family farms (total agricultural production) / 3658,1 / 5146,5 / 5250,0
Crop production / 1915,1 / 3232,5 / 3202,0
Animal production / 1743,0 / 1914,0 / 2048,0
Agricultural partnerships and enterprises (total agricultural production) / 1254,9 / 1765,7 / 2090,0
Crop production / 364,2 / 747,6 / 923,5
Animal production / 890,7 / 1018,1 / 1166,5
Production of enterprises providing services for agriculture / 125,9 / 115,6 / 168,2
Crop production
Crop area, harvest and yield
Crop area
(in thousand hectares)
/Yield
(100 kg per hectare)
/Harvest
(in thousand tonnes)
2007 / 2008 / 2007 / 2008 / 2007 / 2008Cereals
/ 1003,3 / 1022,0 / 30,1 / 33,5 / 3017,0 / 3421,9Dried pulses
/ 40,7 / 36,7 / 13,9 / 17,0 / 56,4 / 62,3Fodder root-crops / 5,6 / 4,8 / 310,0 / 292,0 / 173,8 / 140,7
Field vegetables
/ 14,9 / 14,2 / 166,0 / 195,0 / 281,9 / 310,4Potatoes
/ 52,8 / 48,4 / 109,0 / 148,0 / 576,1 / 716,4Sugar beet
/ 16,9 / 8,7 / 473,0 / 390,0 / 799,9 / 339,1Purchase of crop products (in thousand tonnes)
2006 / 2007 / 2008Grain
/ 1162,2 / 1774,4 / 2405,9Sugar beet (actual sugar content) / 716,4 / 799,9 / 339,1
Flax fibre / 0,3 / 0,4 / 0,1
Rapeseed / 136,5 / 329,8 / 299,4
Potatoes / 14,1 / 17,2 / 48,7
Vegetables / 40,6 / 42,4 / 55,9
Fruit and berries / 83,2 / 57,0 / 39,6
Animal production
Number of livestock and poultry (in thousand heads)
2007 / 2008 / 2009Cattle
/ 838,8 / 787,9 / 770,9Pigs
/ 1127,1 / 923,2 / 897,1Sheep and goats
/ 57,4 / 63,0 / 64,1Horses
/ 60,9 / 55,9 / 54,4Poultry
/ 9439,9 / 9874,8 / 9107,5Production of animal products
2007 / 2008Meat (carcass weight, in thous. tonnes) / 252,3 / 215,3
Milk (in thousand tonnes) / 1936,6 / 1883,8
Eggs (in millian pcs.) / 959,1 / 891,4
Wool (physical weight, in tonnes) / 78 / 85
Purchase of animal products (in thousand tonnes)
2006 / 2007 / 2008Livestock and poultry live weight / 253,5 / 271,3 / 242,6
Livestock and poultry carcass weight
/ 182,6 / 172,8 / 154,7Milk (3,4% fat content) / 1561,2 / 1628,2 / 1660,8
Eggs (in million pcs.) / 483,3 / 486,0 / 454,4
Do you know that:
Lithuania was first mentioned in 1009;
> by the end of the fourteenth century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe;
Lithuania was the last country in Europe to be converted to Christianity;
Lithuania had only one king during the royal times, King Mindaugas (1236-1263);
Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare independence from the USSR;
> some 84% of the population are ethnic Lithuanians;
> the first publishing house in Lithuania was founded in Vilnius, in 1522 and the first Lithuanian book was published in 1547;
> the Lithuanian language is more ancient than other indo-european tongues and is the nearest idiom to Sanscrit; the philologists generally agree that Lithuanian is the most ancient of all the living languages;
> the great philologist Schleicher in his monumental "Geographie Universalie" says: "If the value of a nation in the whole humanity were to be measured by the beauty of its Language, the Lithuanians should rank first among the inhabitants in Europe;
> the mother of Pope John Paul II was of Lithuanian descent;
> the Old Town of Vilnius (Lithuanian: Vilniaus senamiestis), one of the largest surviving medieval old towns in Northern Europe, has an area of 3,59 square kilometres. In 1994 the VilniusOldTown was included in the UNESCOWorld Heritage List in recognition of its universal value and originality;
> the onlymonument in the world to the famous American composer, quitar player and singer Frank Zappa is in Vilnius;
> Lithuanian athletes have won 16 Olimpic medals total (4 gold);
> favourite bear in Lithuania is Švyturio Ekstra. Gold Medal awarded to Švyturio Ekstra at the World Beer Championship (USA, “Dortmunder” category) in 2001, Silver Award granted to the same beer at the World Beer Cup (USA, “Dortmunder/European Export” category) in 2000;
Lithuanian food
Lithuanians like to eat good, tasty and filling foods. The tradition of eating well is inherited from the ancestors who would say, "he who eats well, works well". Lithuanian traditional cuisine took shape over many centuries and was much influenced by cultural contacts with neighbouring nations.
Lithuania is divided into five ethnic regions. This regional division is evident in foods that are particular to each region. The Highlanders (Aukstaiciai) live in the North Eastern region and are known for their pancakes and cottage cheese dishes. The Samogitians (Zemaiciai) inhabit the North Western region and have their special sour butter, porridges and gruels. Dzukai are the people of the South Eastern region and are main consumers of buckwheat, mushrooms and potatoes. Suvalkieciai, people of the South Western region favour smoked meat, sausages and cepelinai. Fish plays an important role in the diet of the seacoast Lithuanians and those living near lakes and rivers.
Lithuanians usually eat three times per day, and the most filling, sumptuous meal is lunch: soup, meat, potatoes etc. Breakfast and dinner are rather light meals.
One of the oldest and most fundamental staple food was and is rye bread (rugine duona). It is eaten every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Two kinds of bread are traditional - plain fermented and scalded. Plain fermented bread has been baked from ancient times, while scalded bread has only been baked since the beginning of the 20th century. Even though very few families bake bread at home now, they still value the traditional belief that bread is more valuable than gold.
Potatoes have become an essential starch staple and are eaten throughout the year. Many delicious dishes are made with potatoes. The most popular are cepelinai, kugelis, potato pancakes (bulviniai blynai), potato casseroles etc.
Sources of information:
1. Statistical yearbook of Lithuania 2009/Statistikos departamentas.- Vilnius, 2009.
2. The World Factbook
3. Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania
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