PEOPLE
The behavior of most Latvians reflects the strong cultural and religious influences of centuries-long Germanic and Scandinavian colonization and settlement. They are viewed as self-reliant, independent, persistent, and reserved. Eastern Latvia (Latgale), however, retains a strong Polish and Russian cultural and linguistic influence. This highly literate society places strong emphasis upon education, which is free and compulsory until age 16. The majority of Latvians belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church; a sizable minority is Russian Orthodox, and Eastern Latvia is predominantly Roman Catholic.
Historically, Latvia has always had fairly large Russian, Jewish, German, and Polish minorities, but traumatic wartime events, postwar emigration, deportations, and Soviet Russification policies from 1939 to 1989 reduced the percentage of ethnic Latvians in Latvia from 73% to 52%. In an attempt to preserve the Latvian language and prevent ethnic Latvians from becoming a minority in their own country, Latvia enacted language, education, and citizenship laws which require a working proficiency in the Latvian language in order to become a citizen. Such legislation has caused concern among many non-citizen resident Russians, despite Latvian legal guarantees of universal human and civil rights regardless of citizenship.
Written with the Latin alphabet, Latvian is the language of the Latvian people and the official language of the country. It is an inflective language with several analytical forms, three dialects, and German syntactical influence. The oldest known examples of written Latvian are from a 1585 catechism. Latvians and Lithuanians are the only surviving direct descendents of the Baltic peoples who speak languages of the Indo-European family. While Latvia was a member of the U.S.S.R, Russian was the official language, so many Latvians also speak Russian, and the resident Slavic populace generally speaks Russian as a first language.
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Latvian(s).
Population (2009): 2,261,294.
Annual growth rate (2008): -0.4%. Birth rate--10.6/1,000. Death rate--13.7/1,000. Migration rate (2008)--3,465 immigrants; 6,007 emigrants. Net migration rate (2008): -2,542 migrants.
Density (2008): 35.2/1 sq. km (this figure is far lower in the rural parts of Latvia). Urban dwellers--67.9%.
Major ethnic groups (2008): Latvians 59.2%, Russians 28.0%, Belarusians 3.7%, Ukrainians 2.5%, Poles 2.4%.
Religions (2003): Lutheran (23.8%), Roman Catholic (18.4%), Russian Orthodox (15.0%).
State language: Latvian. Russian also is spoken by most people.
Education: Years compulsory--9. By 1989, 60% of the adult populace had finished high school, and 12% had completed college. Enrollment (2007/2008)--382,073 students in 1,648 schools (including pre-school establishments and vocational education institutions) and 127,760 university students. Literacy--99.8%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--6.7/1,000 (2008). Life expectancy (2008)--67.2 yrs. male, 77.9 yrs. female.
Work force (2008) (1.076 million): Industry--14.7%; trade--16.2%; construction--11.4%; agriculture/forestry--7.9%; transport/communications--8.6%; public administration/defense--7.7%; education--8.3%; real estate industry--0.9%; health care/social welfare--4.7%.
