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Lithuania

Lithuania
General information
Common nameLithuania
Local name 
Name 
Motto"Tautos jėga vienybėje" 
"The strength of the nation lies in unity"
AnthemTautiška giesmė
National Hymn
CapitalVilnius
Largest citycapital
Official languagesLithuanian
Ethnic groups83.9% Lithuanians,
6.6% Poles,
5.4% Russians,
1.3% Belarusians,
3.8% others and unspecified (2011)
DemonymLithuanian
Government
GovernmentParliamentary republic
PresidentDalia Grybauskaitė
Prime MinisterAndrius Kubilius
Seimas SpeakerIrena Degutienė
IndependenceIndependence (from Russia and Germany (1918))
First mention of Lithuania9 March 1009
Coronation of Mindaugas6 July 1253
Personal union with Poland2 February 1386
Creation of the Polish � Lithuanian Commonwealth1569
Partitions of the Commonwealth1795
Independence declared16 February 1918
1st and 2nd Soviet occupations15 June 1940 and again 1944
Nazi German occupation22 June 1941
Independence restored11 March 1990
EU accession1 May 2004
Geography
Total Area25174 sq mi (65200.7 km2) (123rd)
Water %1.35%
Demography
Population Est.3207060 (133rd)
Population census3483972 (2002)
Density (pop.)54.5/km2 (120th) (141.2/sq mi)
Economy
GDP PPP$59.825 billion (2011)
GDP (PPP) per capita$18,278
GDP (nominal)$40.333 billion (2011)
GDP (nominal) per capita$12,323
Other information
Gini36 (2003) (medium)
HDI(+) 0.783 (2010) (high) (44th)
CurrencyLithuanian litas (Lt) (LTL)
Time zoneEET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST)EEST (UTC+3)
Date formatsyyyy-mm-dd (CE)
Drives on theright
Internet TLD.lt1
Calling code370

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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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