According to 1989 census figures, Estonia had a population of 1,565,662. By 1994 this number had dropped to an around 1,506,927 as a result of negative natural growth rates and net out-migration beginning in 1990. Females outnumbered males by some 100,000 in 1991. Seventy % of the population was urban. The birth rate in 1993 was 10.0 per 1,000 population, and the death rate was 14.0 per 1,000.

Tallinn, the capital, is the largest city, with about 479,000 inhabitants in 1989. Tartu, the second most populous city, had about 113,000 residents in the same year, and Narva, on the Russian border, had 81,000. Since the late 1980s, many place-names have had their pre-Soviet names restored. These include the Saaremaa town of Kuressaare and some 250 streets throughtout the nation.

The reverse flow of migration is thought to have contributed in the early 1990s to a slight rise in the Estonian proportion of the population. In 1989 Estonians constituted only 61.5 % of the population, while Russians made up 30.3 %, Ukrainians 3.1 %, Belorussians 1.7 %, and Finns 1.1 %; Jews, Tatars, Germans, Latvians, and Poles constituted the remaining 2.3 %. This was in sharp contrast to 1934, when Estonians described 88.2 % of the population and Russians only 8.2 %. This demographic shift was a major concern for Estonians, who feared losing control of their own nation. Another worrisome statistic for Estonians was their disproportionately small share of the yearly natural population growth (births minus deaths) until 1990 and their large share of the population's decrease in 1991. Although Estonians dominate in the nationside, the Russian population in Estonia is nearly 90 % urban, living mainly in Tallinn and in the northeastern industrial towns of Kohtla-Järve, Sillamäe, and Narva. Tallinn is about 47 % Estonian. Kohtla-Järve is only about 21 % Estonian, Sillamäe 5 to 6 %, and Narva 4 %.