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Latvia

History

A former Soviet republic, Latvia has experienced a profound shift in character during the past 50 years of domination. Ethnic Latvians, linguistically related to Lithuanians and culturally close to Estonians, until recently barely registered a majority in the Baltic state's capital of Riga. More than 700,000 ethnic Russians live in Latvia, three-fifths without citizenship. Whether to grant citizenship to these ethnic Russians is now hotly debated. In the early 1990s, rapid industrialization degraded the environment, but manufacturing declined in the latter half of the decade. Latvia is due to join the EU on 1 May 2004.

Ongoing Disputes: The Russian Duma refuses to ratify boundary delimitation treaty with Latvia; the Latvian Parliament has not ratified its 1998 maritime boundary treaty with Lithuania, primarily due to concerns over oil exploration rights.

Environment Issues: Latvia's environment has benefited from a shift to service industries after the country regained independence; the main environmental priorities are improvement of drinking water quality and sewage system, household and hazardous waste management, and reduction of air pollution; in 2001, Latvia closed the EU accession negotiation chapter on environment committing to full enforcement of EU environmental directives by 2010.

Statistics

Climate: Maritime; wet, moderate winters
Terrain: Low plain
Population: 2.3 million
Infant Mortality: 14.59 deaths/1,000 live births
Life Expectancy: 69.31 years
Ethnic Groups: Latvian 57.7%, Russian 29.6%, Belarusian 4.1%, Ukrainian 2.7%, Polish 2.5%, Lithuanian 1.4%, other 2%
Religions: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox
Labour Force: 1.1 million
Unemployment Rate: 7.6%

Map

Map of Latvia - click for a large version

Map courtesy of the CIA World Factbook

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