Let’s learn the other facts.
1. Poles, most of whom are Polonized ethnic Lithuanians, are the second largest ethnic group and account for 7% of the population.
2. Russians, most of whom live in urban areas, are the third largest at 6%. Although some Russians lived in Lithuania for centuries, most came as settlers during the Soviet era to replace people who had been forcibly deported.
3. Other minority groups in Lithuania are Belarusians, Ukrainians, Jews, Germans, Tatars, and Karaites.
4. Some 79% of the population are Roman Catholics. About 5% are Russian Orthodox or Old Believers, and 1% are Lutherans, Calvinists, or members of other Protestant denominations.
5. Before World War II there was a large, vibrant, and creative Jewish community in Lithuania. The city of Vilnius was an important center of Jewish religious and secular learning and also a hub of Jewish economic, political, literary, and artistic activity.
6. Lithuania's Jews, known as Litvaks, made up approximately 8% of the population at the time, but 90% of them were killed during the German occupation of 1941–1944. After the war most of the survivors emigrated to Israel and other countries. Only a small remnant of about 4,000 remained in Lithuania.
7. Two-thirds of the population live in the cities, and one-third in rural areas. The largest city is the capital, Vilnius. Other major cities are Kaunas, at the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers; the ice-free port of Klaipėda; and the industrial cities of Šiauliai and Panevėžys.
8. There are several universities. The oldest of them is the University of Vilnius, which was founded in 1579.
9. Between 1989 and 2004, the population of Lithuania declined by 6.8%, owing both to the return of some Soviet-era settlers to Russia and to a large-scale emigration of young people to western Europe and other areas in search of better-paying employment. In addition, the birthrate decreased below the replacement level, while the death rate remained about the same. This resulted in a shrinking and aging population, which was a common trend in Europe.
10. Lithuania comprises five historically and culturally defined regions. These are Samogitia (Žemaitija), covering more than a quarter of the nation's territory, in the west; Aukštaitija, the largest, extending over almost half of the country, in the northeast; and three small regions -Sūduva, in the southwest; Dainava, in the south; and the Klaipėda (Memel) territory, which along with much of Kaliningrad was once part of the distinct region known as Lithuania Minor, on the Baltic Sea and the lower Nemunas River.
