Historically, Latvia always has had a fairly large Russian, Jewish, German and Polish minorities, but postwar emigration, deportations and Soviet russification policies of 1939-89 dropped the percentage of ethnic Latvians in Latvia from 73% to 52%. In an attempt to preserve the Latvian language and avoid ethnic Latvians becoming a minority in their own country, Latvia attempted to impose strict language and citizenship laws in early 1990s. This caused many non-citizen resident Russians concern over their ability to assimilate, despite Latvian legal guarantees of universal human and civil rights regardless of citizenship. The language and citizenship laws have been considerably relaxed since then, but concerns among Russians remain.

Written with the Latin alphabet, Latvian language is the language of the Latvian people and the official language of the country. The Soviets imposed the official use of Russian, so most Latvians speak Russian as a second language while some of the resident Slavic populace may not speak Latvian at all.

Livonians are the other indigenous ethnic group, with about 100 of them remaining. Some Latgallians consider themselves as a group separate from Latvians but the predominant view is that Latgallians are a distinctive subgroup of Latvians.

Statistical indicators

The following data are estimates by July, 2004, obtained from the CIA World Factbook.

Population: 2,306,306

Age structure:
0-14 years: 15% (male 177,223; female 169,241)
15-64 years: 69% (male 772,496; female 823,410)
65 years and over: 16% (male 118,035; female 245,901) (2004 est.)

Population growth rate: -0.71% (2004 est.)

Birth rate: 8.9 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Death rate: 13.7 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Net migration rate: -2.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.48 male(s)/female
total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2004 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 9.67 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 70.86 years
male: 65.91 years
female: 76.08 years (2004 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.25 children born/woman (2004 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Latvian(s) (archaic: Lett(s))
adjective: Latvian (archaic: Lettish)

Ethnic groups: Latvians 57.7%, Russians 29.6%, Belarusians 4.1%, Ukrainians 2.7%, Poles 2.5%, Lithuanians 1.4%, other 2% (2002)

Religions: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox

Languages: Latvian (official), Russian, other

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.8%
male: 99.8%
female: 99.8% (2004 est.)