Country Sheet : Latvia

Information file

Last Update on 16th July 2025

LATVIA

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In English - version of 16th July 2025

Geography

Area : 64,589 km²

Borders : 1,348 km: Belarus (141 km), Estonia (343 km), Lithuania (588 km), Russia (276 km)

Coastline : 498 km

Capital : Riga

Official language : Latvian

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Population

Population : 1,871,882 inhabitants (2024)

Crude natural change rate : -7.4‰ (2024)

Population repartition: 15.6% under 15 years old, 21.4% over 65 years old (2024)

Foreign residents: 0% EU nationals, 13% extra-EU nationals (2021)

Crude net migration rate: 2.5‰ (2024)

First time asylum applicants: 800 (2024)

Life expectancy: men 70.5 years, women 80.6 years (2023)

Religions: Lutheran 36.2%, Catholic 19.5%, Orthodox 19.1%, no religion/unspecified 23.5%.

Ethnic groups: Latvian 62.7%, Russian 24.5%, Belarusian 3.1%, Ukrainian 2.2%, Polish 2%, Lithuanian 1.1%, other 1.8%, non specified 2.6% (est. 2021)

Source : Eurostat, The World Factbook

Economy

Currency: Euro

GDP: € 40,208.4 million (2024)

GDP per capita (PPS): € 17,510 (2024)

GDP growth : -0.3% (2025)

Inflation: 3.8% (June 2025)

Public debt: 48.1% of GDP (Q1 2025)

Unemployment: 7.4% (March 2025)

Stock of foreign direct investment from the entire world: 63.6% of GDP (2023)

Budget balance: -3% of GDP (2025)

Source : Eurostat, Trading Economics, World Bank

Political system

Republic, parliamentary democracy (Constitution of August 21st 1991) since it regained its independence - Latvia was annexed by the USSR in 1944.

Head of state: On 31st May 2023, Edgars Rinkevics was elected President of the Republic by the deputies of the Saeima.

Prime minister: Evika Siliņa (New Unity) since September 15th 2023. She leads a coalition government of three parties: New Unity (JV), Progressives (P) and the Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS).

Unicameral parliamentary system: The Saeima (the Parliament) comrises 100 seats. Representatives are elected for a 4-year mandate through direct universal suffrage by proportional representation (threshold of 5%).