Lithuania+Culture

=Culture=

Population
Lithuania has a population of 3,535, 547 people as of July 2011. The people that call Lithuania their home are known as Lithuanians. Almost seventy percent of the population is between fifteen and sixty-four years old but the population is declining at a rate of .276%. The median age of a Lithuania is 40.1 years with the median age of females being five years higher than males. In 2010, sixty-seven percent of the total population lived in urban areas. The life expectancy for Lithuanians is seventy-five years old. Twenty percent of the adult population in Lithuania are considered to be obese compared to thirty-four percent of the American population (Lithuania CIA Fact Book, 2011).

Culture
There are many different ethnic groups that have come together to populate Lithuania. Eighty-four percent of the population is Lithuanian followed by the Polish and Russians. Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania and many people learn Russian as a second language but a small percentage of the population also speaks Polish. Almost eighty percent of Lithuanians belong to the Roman Catholic religion. The Russian Orthodox and Protestant religions are also prominent as well as about ten percent of the population claim that they do not belong to any religion. Education is an important part of the Lithuanian culture which contributes greatly to Lithuania having a literacy rate of 99.6%. School is free and compulsory and is required for all people until the age of sixteen (Lithuania U.S. Department of State, 2011).



Political
Lithuania is a parliamentary democracy meaning the the legislature picks the government including the prime minister and the cabinet members but the president, who is the chief of state, is elected by the population every five years. You must be eighteen years of age in order to vote. Independence Day is celebrated on February 16th. This is the date Lithuania established its statehood and declared its independence from Soviet Russia in 1918. Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. On October 25, 1992, Lithuania adopted its constitution which was amended in 2004 (Lithuania CIA Fact Book, 2011).

Economical
Trade with Central and Eastern European neighbors, as well as Russia, accounts for a large percentage of Lithuania's total trade. It is shifting from a command economy to a market economy where prices of goods are determined by supply and demand. During the 2008-2009 economic crises, Lithuania experienced one of the worst economic declines when the GDP dropped almost fifteen percent. In 2010, 17.8% of the population was unemployed and about four percent of the population was below the poverty line in 2003 (Lithuania CIA Fact Book, 2011).

Lithuania produces many agricultural products such as grains, potatoes, sugar beets, and flax. Some of the industries found in Lithuania include metal-cutting machine tools, electric motors, petroleum refining, agriculture machinery, and optical equipment. In 2010, Lithuania had almost $21 billion in exports with commodities including mineral products, machinery, and chemicals. Most exports are sent to Russia as well as Germany, Latvia, and Poland (Lithuania CIA Fact Book, 2011).