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Common name | Lithuania | Local name | | Name | | Motto | "Tautos jėga vienybėje" "The strength of the nation lies in unity" | Anthem | Tautiška giesmė National Hymn
| Capital | Vilnius | Largest city | capital | Official languages | Lithuanian | Ethnic groups | 83.9% Lithuanians, 6.6% Poles, 5.4% Russians, 1.3% Belarusians, 3.8% others and unspecified (2011) | Demonym | Lithuanian | Government | Parliamentary republic | President | Dalia Grybauskaitė | Prime Minister | Andrius Kubilius | Seimas Speaker | Irena Degutienė | Independence | Independence (from Russia and Germany (1918)) | First mention of Lithuania | 9 March 1009 | Coronation of Mindaugas | 6 July 1253 | Personal union with Poland | 2 February 1386 | Creation of the Polish � Lithuanian Commonwealth | 1569 | Partitions of the Commonwealth | 1795 | Independence declared | 16 February 1918 | 1st and 2nd Soviet occupations | 15 June 1940 and again 1944 | Nazi German occupation | 22 June 1941 | Independence restored | 11 March 1990 | EU accession | 1 May 2004 | Total Area | 25174 sq mi (65200.7 km2) (123rd) | Water % | 1.35% | Population Est. | 3207060 (133rd) | Population census | 3483972 (2002) | Density (pop.) | 54.5/km2 (120th) (141.2/sq mi) | GDP PPP | $59.825 billion (2011) | GDP (PPP) per capita | $18,278 | GDP (nominal) | $40.333 billion (2011) | GDP (nominal) per capita | $12,323 | Gini | 36 (2003) (medium) | HDI | (+) 0.783 (2010) (high) (44th) | Currency | Lithuanian litas (Lt) (LTL) | Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | Date formats | yyyy-mm-dd (CE) | Drives on the | right | Internet TLD | .lt1 | Calling code | 370 |
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Lithuania (c-enaudio=en-us-Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania ( ) is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, and across the Baltic Sea to the west lie Sweden and Denmark. It shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and a Russian exclave (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 3.2 million as of 2011, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The Lithuanians are a Baltic people, and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages (together with Latvian) in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.
During the 14th century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe: present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With the Lublin Union of 1569, Poland and Lithuania formed a new state, the Polish � Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772 to 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.
In the aftermath of World War I, Lithuania's Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, declaring the re-establishment of a sovereign state. Starting in 1940, Lithuania was occupied first by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end in 1944 and the Germans retreated, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania.
On 11 March 1990, the year before the break-up of the Soviet Union, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence. Prior to the global financial crisis of 2007 � 2010, Lithuania had one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union. Lithuania is a member of NATO, the Council of Europe, and the European Union. Lithuania became a full member of the Schengen Agreement on 21 December 2007. In 2009, Vilnius was celebrated as the European Capital of Culture; and Lithuania celebrated the millennium of its name. In 2011, Lithuania hosted Eurobasket 2011, the men's European Basketball Championship.
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