Lääne-Viru County ( or Lääne-Virumaa) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is in northern Estonia, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. In Estonian, lääne means 'western' and ida means 'east' or 'eastern'. Lääne-Viru borders Ida-Viru County to the east, Jõgeva County to the south, and Järva and Harju counties to the west. In January 2013, Lääne-Viru County had a population of 58,806, or 4.5% of the population of Estonia.
History
In prehistoric times, Lääne-Virumaa was settled by Estonians of the Vironian tribe.
County government
Until 2017, the County Government (), seated in Rakvere, was led by a governor (), who was appointed by the Government of Estonia. Since 2014, the governor position was held by Marko Torm.
Municipalities
The county is subdivided into municipalities. There is one urban municipality ( 'towns') and seven rural municipalities ( 'parishes') in Lääne-Viru County.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Rank !! Municipality !! Type !! Population<br />(2018)!! Area<br />km<sup>2</sup>
Eastern Orthodox congregations in the county are predominantly under the administration of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church but some of them are also under the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Several congregations of Baptists, a catholic congregation in Rakvere and other Christian churches operate in the county.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Religious affiliations in Lääne-Viru, census 2000–2021*
|-
! rowspan="2"|Religion
! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|2000
! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|2011
! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|2021
|-
! Number
! %
! Number
! %
! Number
! %
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;" | Christianity || 10,764|| 19.9|| 8,429|| 16.7|| 8,040||15.9
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Orthodox Christians</small> || 2,152|| 4.0|| 2,777|| 5.5|| 3,040||6.1
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Lutherans</small> || 7,498|| 12.9|| 4,755|| 9.4|| 3,730||7.5
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Catholics</small> || 162|| 0.3|| 98|| 0.2|| 120||0.2
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Baptists</small> || 294|| 0.5|| 166|| 0.3|| 190||0.4
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Jehovah's Witnesses</small> || 234|| 0.4|| 187|| 0.3|| 170||0.3
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Pentecostals</small> || 135|| 0.2|| 102|| 0.2|| 170||0.3
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Old Believers</small> || 10|| 0.01|| 20|| 0.03|| -||-
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Methodists</small> || 136|| 0.2|| 77|| 0.1|| 40||0.08
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Adventists</small> || 143|| 0.2|| 76|| 0.1|| 160||0.3
|-
|style="background:#E0F0FF;"| <small>—Other Christians</small> || -|| -|| 171|| 0.3|| 420||0.8
|-
|style="background:#E0FFD0;"| Islam || 23|| 0.03|| 26|| 0.05|| 20||0.04
|-
| style="background:#FFFFC0;" | Buddhism|| -|| -|| 30|| 0.05|| 50||0.1
|-
| style="background:#F0E0FF;" | Other religions<small>**</small>|| 237|| 0.4|| 361|| 0.7|| 680||1.3
|-
| style="background:#F5F5F5;" | No religion|| 24,820|| 46.0|| 35,239|| 69.8|| 35,790||72.3
|-
| style="background:#DCDCDC;" | Not stated<small>***</small>|| 10,249|| 19.0|| 6,444|| 12.7|| 4,910||9.9
|-
! Total population<small>*</small> || colspan="2" | 53,957|| colspan="2" | 50,425|| colspan="2" |49,490
|-
| colspan="7" | *<small>The censuses of Estonia count the religious affiliations of the population older than 15 years of age.</small>