Lithuania

Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic states (the others being Estonia and Latvia). It borders Belarus, Russia, Latvia, and Poland. Lithuania covers slightly more than 25,000 square miles (65,300 square kilometers), and in 2012 it had an estimated population of 2.988 million. The official language is Lithuanian. In 2004, Lithuania became a member of the European Union (EU) and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 2012, nearly 80 percent of the population were [Page 920]Roman Catholic, slightly more than 4 percent were Russian Orthodox, and most of the remainder adhered to some form of Protestantism.

In the 20th century, agricultural production dominated in Lithuania. A large part of the country’s industrialization took place between 1940 and 1990, when Lithuania was part of ...