Ida-Viru County ( et, Ida-Viru maakond or ''Ida-Virumaa'') is one of 15

counties of Estonia Counties ( et, maakond, plural ') are the first-level administrative subdivisions of Estonia. Estonian territory is composed of 15 counties, including 13 on the mainland and 2 on islands. The government (') of each county is led by a ' (gov ...

. It is the most north-eastern part of the country. The county contains large deposits of

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

- the main

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

mined in Estonia. Oil shale is used in the production of

shale oil Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...

and in

thermal power plant A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a steam ...

s. The capital of the county is the town of

Jõhvi Jõhvi is a town in northeastern Estonia, and the administrative centre of the Ida-Viru County. The town is also an administrative centre of Jõhvi Parish. It is situated about 50 km west of the Estonia–Russia international border. ...

which is administratively united with the Jõhvi Parish; nevertheless,

Narva Narva, russian: Нарва is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in Ida-Viru county, at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva river which forms the Estonia–Russia international border. With 54 ...

is the largest town in the county in terms of population and at the same time the third largest city in Estonia after

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

and Tartu. In January 2019 Ida-Viru County had a population of 136,240 – constituting 10.3% of the total population in Estonia. It borders

Lääne-Viru County Lääne-Viru County ( et, Lääne-Viru maakond or ''Lääne-Virumaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is in northern Estonia, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. In Estonian, ''lääne'' means western and ''ida'' means east or easter ...

in the west,

Jõgeva County Jõgeva County ( et, Jõgeva maakond or ''Jõgevamaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in eastern part of the country and borders Ida-Viru County to the north-east, Lake Peipus to the east, Tartu County to the south, Viljandi C ...

in the southwest and Russia (

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast ( rus, Ленинградская область, Leningradskaya oblast’, lʲɪnʲɪnˈgratskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, , ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It was established on 1 August 1927, although it was not until 194 ...

) in the east. It is the only county in Estonia where

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

constitute the majority of population (73.1% in 2010), the second highest being Harju (28%).

History

During the latter part of the period of Soviet rule of Estonia, Ida-Virumaa was called Kohtla-Järve district, and its administrative capital was

Kohtla-Järve Kohtla-Järve is a city and municipality in northeastern Estonia, founded in 1924 and incorporated as a town in 1946. The city is highly industrial, and is both a processor of oil shales and is a large producer of various petrochemical products ...

County Government A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

( et, maavalitsus), led by a

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

( et, maavanem), ceased to exist after administrative reform in 2017. The last governor of Ida-Viru county was Andres Noormägi.

Demographics

Population of Ida-Viru county (1990-2010)

In January 2017, the population of Ida-Virumaa was 143,880, which makes it the third largest county in Estonia (after Harju and Tartu counties, which include the capital

and country's second-largest city Tartu). 44.6% of the population are men and 55.4% women. By January 2020, the population of Ida-Virumaa had decreased to 134,259, of which 33% were of native origin and 67% of foreign origin. As a result of mass migration from the Soviet Union, Ida-Viru County is now the only county in Estonia where ethnic

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

s have largely replaced the indigenous Estonian population. By ethnic origin, on 1 January 2017, 73.1% of the population were

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

, 18.9% were

Estonians Estonians or Estonian people ( et, eestlased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to Estonia who speak the Estonian language. The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to oth ...

, 2.3% were

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

, 2.1% were Belarusians and 0.9% were

Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...

Municipalities

Ida-Virumaa County is subdivided into eight

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

, of which four are urban ( et, linnad — cities or towns) and four are rural ( et, vallad — parishes). There are 217 villages in Ida-Virumaa. Ida-Viru municipalities 2017

Landmarks

File:Kuremäe nunnaklooster 2014 01.jpg,

Pühtitsa Convent Pühtitsa Convent (Estonian: Kuremäe Jumalaema Uinumise nunnaklooster, Russian: Пюхтицкий Успенский женский монастырь) is a Russian Orthodox convent in Eastern Estonia (Ida-Viru County) between Lake Peipus and ...

File:Uljaste järv oktoobris.jpg, Lake Uljaste File:Ida-Viru Tuhamäed.JPG, Ash hills in Ida-Viru County File:Avinurme kirik.JPG,

Avinurme Avinurme is a small borough (') in Mustvee Parish Jõgeva County northeastern Estonia. It was the administrative centre of Avinurme Parish. Singer Dagmar Oja Dagmar Oja (born 8 July 1981) is an Estonian singer. Life Oja was born in A ...

church File:Selisoo raba, Ida-Virumaa.JPG, Selisoo bog File:Narva, Hermann Castle.jpg,

Hermann Castle Hermann Castle ( et, Hermanni linnus, russian: Замок Герман; also known as Hermannsfeste, Herman Castle, Narva Castle (russian: На́рвский за́мок), and Narva fortress) is a castle in Narva, eastern Estonia. It was found ...

File:Mäetaguse mõisa peahoone.jpg, Mäetaguse manor house File:Sillamäe 2008 2.jpg,

Sillamäe Sillamäe (Estonian for 'Bridge Hill'; also known by the Germanised names of ''Sillamäggi'' or ''Sillamägi'') is a town in Ida-Viru County in the northern part of Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. It has a population of ...

town hall

References

External links

Ida-Virumaa Tourism PortalIda-Virumaa Portal
{{Authority control Counties of Estonia Russian communities