Sport in Lithuania Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Sport in Lithuania - Essay Example (Klimas, V. & Baublyte, M. 1997) The country's economy is based on a free market that has capitalistic principles. The government of Lithuania pursues a flat rate tax and the rate of unemployment in this country is very low and this has further led into the notion of the Baltic tiger. However the country has been in transition fro an economy that is communistically planned but it has also faced crisis in its financial sector partly because of the financial crisis in Russia. The country's GDP has grown by a rate of 7.5% since the year 2005 whereas the rate of inflation grew by 3%. The country's purchasing power parity is approximately $48.49 billion and the per capita income is estimated to be $15, 858. On the other hand the industrial composition of this country is estimated to be 33% the countries industries are inclusive of machine tools and metal cutting, television sets, food processing computers, optical equipment amongst others. The earliest inhabitants in Lithuania date back to 10,000 BC. The Lithuanians are neither Germanic nor Slavic even though the country's union with Germanic, Poland and Russian colonization as well as settlement left the religious and cultural influences. (K. Dawisha, B. Parrott 997) In the country of Lithuania the homogeneous population is the Lithuania and according to census that was conducted in the year 2001 84% of the population positively identified themselves as Lithuanians, 7% as the poles, 6% as the Russians, and 1.5% as the Belarusian's and 2% as the members of the other ethnic groups. The high percentage of the Lithuanians in the country could be highly influenced by the fact that in the 1990s the Lithuanian government embarked on granting citizenship to any person who lived in the country and also wished to have the country's citizenship. (Kaunas medical academy 1998) In the country's Vilnius region there is a higher concentration of the Poles. On the other hand the Russians in the country even though they are not very numerous such as the poles they are more evenly scattered even though they lack strong political parties. The ethnic composition in Lithuania has however undergone very dramatic changes with the most prominent changes being the extermination of the Jewish population during the holocaust. It is easier to obtain citizenship in this country than in the many other European countries. All the citizens in this country have had the liberty to freely participate in any sporting activity that exists in the country. However some of the sporting events have either marginalized the males or the females. For instance the country's football teams consist of only male parties whereas the majority participants in the cycling sport are the females. Religion. Majority of the Lithuanians belong to the Roman Catholic Church which has been the