At the beginning of 2026, the share of Latvians in the total population of Latvia increased by 0.3 percentage points, reaching 63.8% (63.5% at the beginning of 2025), bb.lv reported from the Central Statistical Bureau.
In turn, the share of Russians and Belarusians has decreased by 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points, respectively. The share of Ukrainians, Poles, and Lithuanians in the total population has remained unchanged.
Of all the residents of the country, 88.6% were born in Latvia, while 11.4% were born abroad. Among those born outside of Latvia, 1.1% of the population were born in European Union countries, 4.8% in Russia, 2.3% in Ukraine, and 1.8% in Belarus.
At the beginning of this year, 87.9% of Latvia's residents are citizens of Latvia (0.2 percentage points more than a year earlier), 8.7% are non-citizens of Latvia (0.2 percentage points less), and 3.4% are citizens of other countries.
Every fourth foreigner (27.4%) is a Ukrainian refugee who arrived in Latvia due to the war.
As reported by bb.lv, at the beginning of 2026, Latvia had a population of 1.845 million people. The population continued to decline, decreasing by 15,500 people over the past year.
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