Where Are Estonian Companies Registered? Counties, Cities and Tallinn Districts

Estonia is a small country, but its business map is strikingly lopsided. To see where Estonia’s companies are registered, we took the Estonian Commercial Register’s open-data extract and mapped the registered address of every commercial company: OÜ, AS, partnerships, cooperatives and comparable legal forms. Sole proprietors, non-profits, apartment associations and foundations are left out, so the map shows businesses rather than every entry in the register.

Estonian Companies by County: Harju Holds 62%

Of the 301,759 companies, 295,619 could be placed in one of Estonia’s 15 counties. The remaining 6,140 have a foreign or unclassifiable address.

Harju and Tartu counties together hold almost three quarters of all Estonian businesses. At the far end of the scale, Hiiu County, on the island of Hiiumaa, has 1,721 registered companies.

Companies Registered in Tallinn: Almost Half the Country

Tallinn has 147,577 companies: 48.9% of the national total and 78.5% of Harju County. No other Estonian city comes close. Tartu has 18,898 (6.3%), Pärnu 7,483 (2.5%), Narva 4,083 (1.4%) and Kohtla-Järve 2,321 (0.8%).

Inside the capital, the split between Tallinn districts is just as uneven:

Another 381 companies have a Tallinn address without a district, which is why the shares add up to 99.7%.

Kesklinn’s 57,457 companies equal 19% of every company in Estonia. That is more than Tartu, Pärnu and Ida-Viru counties put together. Part of this is simply where the offices are. Another part is that thousands of companies owned by non-residents and e-residents use a legal address supplied by a corporate service provider, and those providers cluster in Tallinn city centre. Our ranking of Estonia’s largest company service providers shows the scale of that market.

What the Commercial Register Data Does and Does Not Show

This is a snapshot of where companies were registered on one day, not a census of active businesses. Companies in liquidation or bankruptcy are included, because they still legally exist. A registered address is also no proof of where the work happens: a Kesklinn OÜ may be run from Berlin or Bangkok. Counties include their cities, and Tallinn includes its districts, so the rows must not be added together.

The map shows where companies sit, not how fast new ones appear. For the number of new companies joining the register each month, and how many are being wound up, see our monthly company registration statistics.

A Legal Address in Tallinn for Your Company

Wherever you actually work from, an Estonian company must have a registered address in Estonia. If its board lives abroad, it also needs a contact person. Eesti Firma provides a legal address in Tallinn and handles company registration in Estonia from start to finish, so your business joins the register without you ever needing a desk in Kesklinn.

Send a Request

Frequently Asked Questions