Minority condition in Latvia

Capital: Riga

Population: 1.88 million

Russian Minority: 25.2%

GDP: $39.85 billion USD

Russian speakers

Russian speakers are the biggest ethnic group in Latvia, comprising 25.2% of the population. The ethnic minority and the dominant majority are differentiated by language, religion, residence, and schooling. The former are Russian speakers, practice Eastern Orthodoxy or self identify as Old Believers. They are urban dwellers residing primarily in the capital city of Riga and the second largest city of Daugavpils. Russian-speaking children tend to attend preschools and schools with Russian language of instruction.

Pressing Issues

Russian speakers in Latvia are most affected by education and citizenship policies. Both policies delineate ethnic boundaries between the dominant and ethnic minorities. Latvian is the only official language, and it is the dominant language in public and private schools. At the same time, Russian-language education has become severely limited since state independence. Exclusionary citizenship adopted in the early 1990s excluded most Russian speakers from the political community. Presently, over 70% of Russian speakers in Latvia have citizenship.