Latvia

Latvia has a large ethnic Russian minority alongside the Latvian majority, a legacy of Soviet-era settlement that makes citizenship and language sensitive issues. Latvian, a Baltic language, is the sole official language.

The population is religiously mixed among Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christian traditions, with many non-religious.

Society

Latvia has high literacy but one of Europe's steepest population declines, the result of low birth rates and heavy emigration to wealthier EU countries after accession.