Suburbanisation in Estonia in the 1990s

Tiit Tammaru, University of Tartu

The aim of the paper is to analyse suburbanisation in Estonia in the 1990s. The study is based on census 2000 individual data, and it uses bivariate and multivariate research methods. The results indicate that suburbanisation was a dominant migration trend in all the metropolitan areas in Estonia in the 1990s, except one. The intensity of suburbanisation was the highest in the capital city metropolitan area and the lowest in small metropolitan areas. The comparison of people who suburbanised in the capital city metropolitan area between 1989 and 2000 with people living in the capital city and suburbs both in 1989 and 2000 yielded the following results. The social status (measured by education and job) of people who suburbanised was lower compared to people living in the capital city, but higher compared to people living in suburbs.