  Let $R$ be a commutative Noetherian ring with unit. We classify the
characters of the group $\mathrm{EL}_d (R)$ provided that $d$ is greater than
the stable range of the ring $R$. It follows that every character of
$\mathrm{EL}_d (R)$ is induced from a finite dimensional representation.
Towards our main result we classify $\mathrm{EL}_d (R)$-invariant probability
measures on the Pontryagin dual group of $R^d$.
