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Latvia

Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, and Belarus, as well as a maritime border to the west with Sweden. Latvia has 2,070,371 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi). The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Latvia is a democratic parliamentary republic established in 1918. The capital city is Riga. Latvian is the official language. Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 118 administrative divisions, of which 109 are municipalities and 9 are cities. Language: The sole official language of Latvia is Latvian, which belongs to the Baltic language group of the Indo-European language family. Another notable language of Latvia is the nearly extinct Livonian language of the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, which enjoys protection by law; Latgalian – referred to as either a dialect or a distinct separate language of Latvian – is also formally protected by Latvian law but only as a historical variation of the Latvian language. Russian, which was widely spoken during the Soviet period, is still the most widely used minority language by far (about 34% speak it at home, including people who are not ethnically Russian). While it is now required that all school students learn Latvian, most schools also include English and either German or Russian in their curricula. English is widely accepted in Latvia, especially in business and tourism. Religion: The largest religion in Latvia is Christianity (79%), though only about 7% of the population attends religious services regularly. The largest groups as of 2011 were: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia – 708,773 Roman Catholic – 500,000 Russian Orthodox – 370,000 In 2011, there were 416 Jews and 319 Muslims living in Latvia.