List of Famous people born in Tartu County, Estonia

Kersti Kaljulaid is an Estonian politician who is the fifth and current President of Estonia, in office since 10 October 2016. She is the first female head of state of Estonia since the country declared independence in 1918, as well as the youngest ever President, age 46 at the time of her election.

Alar Karis is an Estonian biologist, civil servant and the president-elect of Estonia. He has been the head of Estonian National Museum since 2018.

Eduard Alexander Felix Kersten was the personal physical therapist of Heinrich Himmler. Kersten used his contacts with Himmler to help people persecuted by Nazi Germany.

Rein Taaramäe is an Estonian road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux.

Leonid Alekseyevich Kulik was a Russian mineralogist who is noted for his research into meteorites.

Kristina Šmigun-Vähi is a former Estonian female cross-country skier and politician. She is the most successful Estonian female cross-country skier with two Olympic gold medals. In 2019 she was elected as a Member of the Estonian Parliament.

Count Joseph Cornelius O'Rourke (1772–1849) was a Russian nobleman of Irish ancestry. He was a military leader who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and achieved the rank of lieutenant general; he is noted in present-day Serbia, where he led a combined Russian and Serb army to defeat the Turks at Varvarin in 1810.

Evald Mikson, was a goalkeeper in the Estonian national football team, winning seven caps between 1934 and 1938. He has been accused of playing an active role in the murder of Jews in Estonia during his service as Deputy Chief of the Estonian Sicherheitspolizei in the Tallinn-Harju district during the German Occupation of Estonia in World War II.

Lorentz Creutz was a Swedish friherre, government administrator, county governor (landshövding) of Kopparberg County (1655–62), member of the Privy Council and supreme commander of the Swedish navy for a few months in 1676.

Vahur Afanasjev was an Estonian novelist, poet, musician and film director best known for his novel Serafima and Bogdan a story following the lives in a village of Russian Orthodox Old Believers on the shore of the lake Peipus from the end of the World War II to the nineties. The novel won the 2017 Estonian Writers' Union's Novel Competition.