Lithuania

• 02/06/2016 13:50
• Lithuania, group Europe

The Republic of Lithuania is a country in northeastern Europe and one of the three Baltic Republics. It borders with Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Russia (namely the Kaliningrad province, which belongs to Russia). It has an area 65.200 sq.km.. and population 2.888.582 residents, according to official estimates 2016.

Capital of Lithuania is Vilnius (539.939 the inhabitants 2014), while other large cities are Kaunas and Klaipeda, which is an important port. More than 80% of the population are Lithuanians and the official language is Lithuanian, which belongs to the Baltic language group.

Lithuania was the first Soviet republic that declared its independence, March 1990. The litas has replaced the ruble as the official currency in March 1993 and May 1 2004 Lithuania joined the European Union. 1 January 2015 the litas was replaced by the euro.