Growing Together: The 2025 GlobalEstonian.com portal wrap-up
As we wrap up 2025, the GlobalEstonian.com team is looking back at a year of growth and new milestones. From practical tools to community stories, here is how the portal has evolved to better serve Estonians around the world.
Our global community of approximately 200,000 Estonians is larger than many counties back home. Though spread across many continents, the interest in our shared heritage and future remains strong: nearly 80% of Estonians abroad follow Estonian news monthly, and over 6,000 people return to Estonia each year.
GlobalEstonian.com serves as the central "Digital Estonian House" for this network. While connections happen everywhere—from local Facebook groups to regional newspapers—we provide a unified hub for global news, grant opportunities, and essential resources like contact and language learning directories. In 2025, the portal reached nearly 4,000 users every month, alongside thousands more through our social media and partner networks.
Making the Portal More Useful in Everyday Life
While much of our work happens behind the scenes, 2025 brought several visible improvements to the site’s functionality. We launched a new and expanding FAQ section for common community questions, established a page for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ internship program, and welcomed Switzerland to our country directory.
Practical tools were also a priority this year: we refined the event submission process and improved the search filtering for events and contacts to make finding information easier. We encourage everyone to take advantage of these tools to share your local events!
Additionally, we collaborated with the Estonian Language Institute (EKI) to update our Estonian language teachers’ directory, and our Expert Answers (Ekspert Vastab!) section continued to grow as a trusted resource for community questions.
Connections—Online and Beyond
Because we are a digital platform connecting people across the globe, most of our work naturally happens through screens. In 2025, our “Kohtume!” (Let’s Meet!) virtual series brought together participants from 14 countries to discuss community building, literature, and project writing in preparation for the 2026 grant season. We also supported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with their biannual Virtual Forums and regular online meetings for diaspora media.
Beyond the digital space, our team was active on the ground, participating in and supporting highlights such as ESTO 2025 activities, the Association of Estonian Cultural Societies (Eesti Kultuuriseltside Ühendus) summer school in Sillamäe, and the 80th anniversary of Eesti Rada in Germany. We also supported the Ministry of Culture’s ceremony recognizing international cultural leaders for their role in bringing global groups to the Song and Dance Festival in Tallinn.
A Year of Shared Stories
While GlobalEstonian.com is a hub for information, its heartbeat is the stories we share. We continued to produce original interviews and articles, curated coverage from diaspora media, and highlighted the milestones that defined our year.
Our most-read updates this year reflected a mix of major milestones and shared curiosity. From the Year of the Estonian Book and the 2024 baby name statistics to essential updates on the Song and Dance Festival, ESTO 2025, and the Virtual Forums, the portal served as a key source for the year's biggest headlines. Beyond the news, we shared stories that captured the unique spirit of the diaspora—like the development of Canada’s KESKUS, the vibrant Estonian theatre scene in Belgium, and how the community in Australia created their own unique Estonian experience. By bringing these voices together, we aim to build a living archive of Estonian life abroad—a goal we hope to expand even further through more community contributions in the coming year.
Looking Ahead—Together
GlobalEstonian.com belongs to you. As we move into 2026, we are focused on creating even more guidance materials and storytelling opportunities to help you shine. This portal is a tool—take advantage of it to help shape the global Estonian information space.
Whether you are organizing something locally, exploring new ways to stay connected, or looking for a taste of home, you are a part of this story. We invite you to use the platform to submit your events, request subpages for your community, and highlight your local achievements.
Share your story. Your tradition. Your “Estonian bite.” What inspired you most this year?
