According to the 2011 census:
- Ethnic Lithuanians made up 84.2% of Lithuania's population, while the largest minorities were Poles (6.6%), Russians (5.8%), and Belarusians (1.2%).
- Roma people, who make up 0.07% of the population, traditionally work in trades such as fortune telling, dancing, and singing.
- Tatars, who make up 0.09% of the population, originally settled in Lithuania in the 14th century and currently use Arabic, Cyrillic, and Latin alphabets for the Tatar language.
- Karaites, a Turkic ethnic group derived from Karaite Judaism, make
2. According to the census conducted in 2011, about 15.8% of
Lithuania's population was composed of ethnic minorities:
Ethnic groups Total population
Compared to all
population, %
Total 3,043,429 100
ethnic Lithuanians 2,561,314 84.2
Poles 200,317 6.6
Russians 176,913 5.8
Belarusians 36,227 1.2
Ukrainians 16,423 0.5
Jews 3,050 0.1
Tatars 2,793 0.09
Germans 2,418 0.07
Roma 2,115 0.07
Latvians 2,025 0.06
Armenians 1,233 0.04
Azerbaijani 648 0.02
Moldovans 540 0.01
Georgian 372 0.01
Estonian 314 0.01
Karaites 241 0.008
Other 3,508 0.1
No response on
the ethnicity question
32,978 1.1
3. Roma people
Roma are a subgroup of
the Romani people (also
known as Gypsies), who
live primarily in Central
and Eastern Europe.
The main occupations of
Romes are trading,
fortune-telling , dancing
and singing.
The cultural heritage of
Roma people enriches the
Lithuanian folklore .
7. Jewish
Lithuania has a small Jewish
community of 4007 people
according to the 2001 census.
9. Lithuanian Jews are often called Litvaks.
Litvaks have an identifiable mode of pronouncing
Hebrew and Yiddish. Litvaks pronounce the vowel holam
as [ej] (as against Sephardic [o ], Germanic [au] and
Polish [oj].
Litvaks are considered to be highly intellectual and stoic.
What is especially impressive-Litvaks are on the top in
the educational attainment among ethnic groups in
Lithuania: 45,6% of Lithuanian Jews had tertiary
education in 2001 (while the percentage of Lithuanians
with tertiary education was 22,6%).
11. The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by
scholars as the Jewish script, square script,
block script, or more historically, the Assyrian
script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew
language, as well as other Jewish languages,
most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-
Arabic.
12. World famous litvaks:
Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of Israel.
Ehud Barak
Leader of Israels Labour Party
and Minister of Defence and
Deputy Prime Minister in
Binyamin Netanyahu's
government.
Roman Arkadyevich
Abramovich -a Russian
business tycoon and the main
owner of the private investment
company Millhouse LLC. He is
known outside Russia as the
owner of Chelsea Football
Club, an English Premier
League football team.
17. The Lipka Tatars (also known as Belarusian Tatars, Lithuanian Tatars, Polish Tatars,
Lipkowie, Lipcani or Mulimi) are a group of Turkic-speaking Tatars who originally
settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the beginning of 14th century. The name
Lipka is derived from the old Crimean Tatar name of Lithuania. The Crimean Tatar
term Lipka Tatarar means Lithuanian Tatars.
Tatar alphabet
Three scripts are currently used for the Tatar language: Arabic, Cyrillic and Latin
Sample text in Tatar in the Cyrillic alphabet
舒仍从 从亠亠仍 亟 舒亰舒 仄 亰 舒弍亶仍舒 仄 仂从从仍舒 磪仆仆舒仆 亳 弍仗仗 匯 勵 匯 劭
舒仗舒. 仍舒亞舒 舒从仍 仄 于 亟舒仆 弍亳亠仍亞 仆 仄 弍 -弍 亠仆 从舒舒舒 亞舒仆仆舒舒匯 唏 匯
仄 仆舒 弍 弍仍亞舒 亳亠仍 .唏
Sample Tatar text in the Latin alphabet (Zaman辰lif)
Barl脹q keel辰r d辰 azat h辰m 端z abruylar脹 h辰m xoquqlar脹 ya脹nnan ti単 bul脹p tualar. Alara
aq脹l h辰m w旦cdan birelg辰n h辰m ber-bersen辰 qarata tuannar巽a m旦nas辰b辰tt辰 bul脹ra
tiel辰r
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Cyrillic version
The official Cyrilic version of the Tatar alphabet used in Tatarstan contains 39 letters:
() 弌 丐 丕 个 丱 丶 丼 丿 乂 乖 乘 亂 亅 豫 亊 劬 哦 勳 匣
18. Tatar cuisine:
B辰li is the oldest traditional dish combining
meat and grains.
Pilaw is served at dinner parties- a traditional
meal combining meat and noodles
qaz脹l脹q-sausage made of horse meat
20. Karaites
The Crimean Karaites or Karaims also known
as Karaim and Qarays, are ethnic group
derived from Turkic-speaking adherents of
Karaism in Eastern Europe Defined themselves
as originally centered in Crimea, Karaim were
established in Trakai (Troki), Lithuania and
Eastern Galicia from late medieval times.
24. KYBYN-The most famous Caraite culinary dish:
half moon shaped pies of yeast dough with a
stuffing of cut into pieces beef or mutton meat
baked in Dutch or baking sheet.
25. Karaim is a Kypchak Turkic language being closely related to Crimean
Tatar, Armeno-Kipchak etc.
Currently only small minority of Karaim can speak Karaim Language( 70
Crimean dialect speakers, 118 Trakai dialect speakers, and about 20
Halych dialect speakers)
ALPHABET
Originally the Hebrew alphabet was used for older, mostly religious texts.
Later on, printed materials also appeared using Latin and Cyrillic scripts
based on Polish, Russian and Ukrainian orthographies. Currently efforts
are being made to introduce for Trakai Karaim a new orthographical
manner based on Lithuanian.
The samples of Trakai karaim words :
e 端'u 'why'
javan 'soldier'
ay d転any 'sad'
ama 'opening'
aej 'in this manner'