About country

Background
After a brief period of independence between the two World Wars, Latvia was annexed by the USSR in 1940. It reestablished its independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although the last Russian troops left in 1994, the status of the Russian minority (some 30% of the population) remains of concern to Moscow. Latvia joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Population
2,274,735 (July 2006)

Age structure
0-14 years: 14% (male 162,562/female 155,091)
15-64 years: 69.6% (male 769,004/female 815,042)
65 years and over: 16.4% (male 121,646/female 251,390) (2006)

Population growth rate
-0.67% (2006)

Birth rate
9.24 births/1,000 population (2006)

Net migration rate
-2.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006)

Infant morality rate
total: 9.35 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 11.31 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 7.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2006)

Total fertility rate
1.27 children born/woman (2006)

Ethnic groups
Latvian 57.7%, Russian 29.6%, Belarusian 4.1%, Ukrainian 2.7%, Polish 2.5%, Lithuanian 1.4%, other 2% (2002)

Religions
Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox

Languages
Latvian (official) 58.2%, Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other 4.3% (2000 census)

GDP - per capita
$13,700 (2005)

Unemployment rate
7.5% (2005)