Population of Tallinn in 2025 was 456 518. Tallinn is the capital and largest city in Estonia. It is also the primate city of Estonia, since its second largest city Tartu is around 4.5 times smaller. In 1989, population of Tallin was close to 500 000, however, it shrank to less than 400 000 around 2000, but has been increasing ever since.
Population in districts of Tallinn
Tallinn is subdivided in 8 districts (linnaosa). Lasnamäe is the most populous district, with over 115 000 inhabitants (26 percent of total population), followed by Mustamäe, Kesklinn (city center), Põhja-Tallinn.
There have been significant changes in population of Tallinn’s districts since 1989. Suburban-like Pirita more than doubled its population while inner city districts (especially Põhja-Tallinn, Nõmme, Kristiine, Mustamäe) lost 15-20% of their population:
More recent trends in population, however, have been different. Since 2000, only in Nõmme there has been a more significant population loss. In the rest of the city, population has been stable or growing:
Like many countries in Europe, Estonia faces demographic challenges, caused by decreasing fertility rates. So far, positive net migration has compensated the negative natural rate.
Tallinn metropolitan area
Tallinn urban area includes the whole Haarju county and this region has 638 076 inhabitants, or 45% of Estonia’s population. It includes the suburbs of Tallinn (for example, Maardu and Keila) and more remote rural areas. However, besides Tallinn, there are no other large cities in Tallinn metropolitan area. Maardu, the second-largest city, has only approximately 16 000 inhabitants.