Between 3000 and 2000 BC, the people of the Corded Ware culture spread over a vast region of eastern Europe, between the Baltic Sea and the Vistula River in the West and the Moscow–Kursk line in the East.

Merging with the indigenous peoples, they gave rise to the Balts, a distinct Indo-European ethnic group whose descendants are the present-day Lithuanian and Latvian nations and the former Old Prussians.

By the time of the largest expansion towards Kievan Rus' lands, at the end of the 13th and during the 14th century, the territory of the GDL was about 800,000 km2, of which 10% was ethnically Lithuanian.

[6] With the Union of Lublin Lithuanian Grand Duchy lost large part of lands to the Polish Crown (see demographics of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth).

[8] The Lithuanian language was used orally in Vilnius, Trakai and Samogitian voivodeships, and by small numbers of people elsewhere.

At the royal court in Vilnius of Sigismund II Augustus, the last Grand Duke of Lithuania prior to the Union of Lublin, both Polish and Lithuanian were spoken equally widely.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the use of the Polish language noticeably increased in eastern Lithuania and western Belarus.

Although this also used the Latin alphabet, it was much less affected by the ban, because Polish was still used by the politically important class of the nobility, and also used predominantly in the biggest towns of Lithuania, and supported by the church.

There were population losses due to several border changes, Soviet deportations, the Holocaust of the Lithuanian Jews, and German and Polish repatriations during and after World War II.

Lithuania's citizenship law and the Constitution meet international and OSCE standards, guaranteeing universal human and civil rights.

Based on 2023 data:[10] Lithuania has the largest difference between the life expectancy of men and women in the world, which is 11 years.

1 the figures of 1939 exclude the Klaipėda Region Source: Official Statistics Portal[12] By data of Statistics Lithuania[15] Lithuanians are a Baltic ethnic group (i.e. Balts), closely related to neighbouring Latvians, who speak Lithuanian, a Baltic language of the Indo-European language family.

According to the census conducted in 2021, 84.6% of the population identified themselves as Lithuanians, 6.5% as Poles, 5.0% as Russians, 1.0% as Belarusians, and 2.3% as members of other ethnic groups.

The Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, an ethnic minority political party, has strong influence in these areas and has representation in the Seimas.

Most of them are engineers who moved with their families from the Russian SFSR to work at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.

Before World War II about 7.5% of the population was Jewish; they were concentrated in cities and towns and had a significant influence on crafts and business.

The provisions of the Citizenship Law announced to be unconstitutional are no longer valid and applicable to the extent stated by the Constitutional Court.

Believers and clergy suffered greatly during the Soviet occupation, with many killed, tortured or deported to Siberia.

Primary, basic and secondary (or high school) education is free of charge to all residents and is compulsory for pupils under 16 years of age.

[37] Primary, basic and secondary education in Lithuania is available to some ethnic minorities in their native languages, including Polish, Russian and Belarusian.

Primary schooling (Lithuanian: pradinis ugdymas) is available to children who have reached age 7 (or younger, should the parents so desire) and lasts four years.

[38] Data from the 2011 census showed that 99.1% of the population aged 20 and older have attained at least primary education, while around 27,000 pupils started the first grade in 2012.

These consist of as many as six separate examinations of which two (Lithuanian Language and Literature and one elective subject) are required to attain the diploma.