Lithuania (officially the Republic of Lithuania) is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. Lithuania is one of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden and Denmark. Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.8 million people as of 2019, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. Lithuanians are Baltic people and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language, the other being Latvian.

The climate ranges between maritime and continental and is relatively mild. The population density is lower than in the Western Europe, therefore most of Lithuania is covered by forests and agricultural pastures. Average temperatures in the coast are -2.5 °C (27.5 °F) in January and 16 °C (61 °F) in July.

Lithuania is a high-income advanced economy with a very high Human development Index, a very high standard of living and performs favorably in Measurements of civil liberties, press freedom, internet freedom, democratic governance and peacefulness.

Not much more than a decade after it regained its independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, Lithuanian was welcomed as a NATO member in 2004. The move came just weeks before a second historic shift for the country in establishing its place in the Western family of nations as it also joined the EU in 2014.

The Lithuania head of state is the president, directly elected for a five-year term and serving a maximum of two terms. The president oversees foreign affairs and national security and is the commander-in-chief of the military. The president also appoints the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet as well as several other top civil servants and judges. The current Lithuanian President, Gitanas Nauséda was elected in 2019.

Lithuania was the last place in Europe to adopt Christianity. Before 1387 when the grand Duchy of Lithuania was finally baptized into Roman Catholicism as a condition of the dynastic union with Poland, its people were pagans. The central characteristic of their religion was the veneration of the forces of nature held to be sacred, personified in the form of various deities.

Facts about Lithuania:

  • The capital (and largest city) in Lithuania is Vilnius.
  • The highest point in Lithuania is Juozapines Hill (294 m) near Vilnius.
  • Lithuania has a national perfume called ‘The Scent of Lithuania’
  • Lithuania was a part of the Soviet Union and however but became under the possession of the Nazi Germany. After the end of World War II, it was again under the possession of Soviet Union until 1990 where it declared its independence – and became the first country to do so.
  • Basketball is the most popular sport in Lithuania.
  • Before the financial crisis of 2007-2010, the Lithuanian economy was considered to be one of the fastest growing in the European Union.