Even today, Lithuania has a proportionately large percentage of rural population: 33% of the population live in the rural areas.

Five cities have a population of over 100,000. Among these, the capital, Vilnius, has a population of 575,000, Kaunas 415,300, Klaipeda 202,800, Siauliai 147,200 and Panevezys 132,100.

With the rapid decline in the birth-rate during the past decades, the population, like that throughout Europe, is ageing. It is now divided into the following groups: 21.9% are under 14, 61% between 15 and 59, and 17.12% over 60.

Lithuania is not a densely populated country, with 56.9 people per km2. Substantial losses in population were brought about through historical cataclysms, forced deportations from the country and a massive emigration to the West. Currently, approximately 20% of the world's Lithuanians reside in Western countries and 5% in Belorus, the Ukraine, Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union.

Lithuanians are not ethnographically uniform. The nation is comprised of four major ethnic groups, who historically had existed within their own areas: the aukstaiciai in the northeast, Zemaiciai in the west, dzukai in the southeast, and the suvalkieciai in the south.