The Republic of Latvia as an Independent Statehas existed for more than 20 years, until that moment Latvia was part of the Union of Soviets. During the time that passed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, much has changed in Latvia's economic, political and social situation. Some residents are happy with the changes that have occurred, others - they want the best. There was also an opinion that the percentage of indigenous Latvians is very small compared to people of other nationalities living in the country. Some people call Latvia a country of emigrants. The population of Latvia is constantly replenished by emigrants, but the number of indigenous people is not decreasing. According to the country's legal experts, the state can not be compared with Australia, where newcomers crowd out indigenous people. The Republic is considered to be a multinational state.
According to statements of the Central Statisticalmanagement of the country, officially the population of Latvia is less than two million people at the end of May 2014. Experts believe that this figure is catastrophic and may affect the very fact of the existence of the state. The American statistical organization put this country in third place to reduce the population. The reasons for such a rapid reduction in the number of people are related to the fact that population growth has a negative value, that is, the number of people who die each day exceeds the number of those born. Another problem that affects growth is that out of every thousand people, four people migrate somewhere. People leave for their families in search of decent wages, a decent life and just for the sake of adventure. The population of Latvia is spread over its territory with a density of about 34 people per square kilometer. In 2010-2011, the urban population is almost 30% higher than the rural one: about 70% of the population lives in the urban area, and 32% in the villages.
The population of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia decreases bythe reason is that so many families from the Baltic countries go to live in other European countries or Russia. Experts believe that emigration has become the norm in the state. In April 2014, a conference on the topic of emigration in the Baltic and Eastern European countries was held at the University of Latvia. This problem worries many scientists, and in search of a common opinion they discussed it out loud. At this conference, Latvia and Lithuania were named one of the most mobile European countries in the European Union. Emigration has become a problem for the demographic situation, because of it the system of social guarantees is collapsing, the economic situation of countries is undermined. According to statistics, people from the working sphere, the so-called middle-ranking workers, are most often decided to move. These people are willing to work, but for more decent wages than they can be offered in their native country.
The population of Latvia, however, like other countriesdirectly depends on the birth rate and mortality. The Statistical Office announced that the birth rate in the country continues to grow: by the end of 2013, the number of children born increased by almost half a thousand children compared with the previous year (18,800 new inhabitants were born from February to December 2013). But, despite these indicators, population growth continues to be negative - along with the birth rate, mortality is also growing. Over 2013, over 26,000 people died in the country, so the death rate exceeded the birth rate by 7,745 people.
Often in the press lately words are heard"Latvia", "population", "population 2014". All this is due to the fact that, despite the economic development of the country, the number of people living in it falls every year. Many condemn the country's accession to the EU, looking for reasons for this fact, others associate the demographic problem with the reluctance of women to bear children. Women in the country do not want to give birth to many children. In each family, on average, one or two children are born, rarely anyone decides on a larger number of children. In fact, in one hour, the population of Latvia is more than 2.3 people by birth rate (one child is born every 1556.43 seconds). At the same time, 3.2 people die every hour.
If we compare the population in Latvia independing on gender, the number of women in the country exceeds the number of men. As of July-August of this year, the male population has not crossed the mark of 1 million people, there are slightly more than a million women in the state. The ratio of men and women as a percentage is 46 to 54. Although in terms of the ratio of children born, boys exceed girls by 0.054 people. According to the 2011 population census, the male population becomes noticeably less in the age category of citizens from 15 to 64 years old, and in the age category over 65 years, there is only 0.48 men per woman.
The last official populationLatvia was determined in 2011. This was done by rewriting all the inhabitants. The 2011 census was the first since the state joined the European Union in 2004. This procedure was carried out at a high level using new questionnaires, if desired, questionnaires compiled for the census could be filled in via the Internet: the list entered the number and series of passports, the identification code of the placeholder. The census data on the population of Latvia was calculated as of March 1, 2011.
Latvia, the number of population in whichdecreases due to the emigration of citizens to other countries, it is itself a multinational country, ready to accept and warm people who want to start a new life. The indigenous population of the country, Latvians, is just over half of the citizens. In percentage terms, the Latvians in the ethnic composition occupy 59.6%. In second place in the national composition of Latvia - Russian. They constitute 27.57% of all inhabitants of the country. People from Belarus and Ukraine also live in the Baltic state: Belarusians make up a little more than 3%, and Ukrainians - up to 3% of all residents. The ethnic composition of the country includes a small group of Lithuanians and Poles, 1.33% and 2.37%, respectively. The national composition does not end on this list: Jews, Greeks, Kazakhs, Romanians make up the remaining percentage of the inhabitants.
Latvia’s population is sparse, realThe situation of the situation with the number slightly below the official. But, despite all the problems, Latvia is on the 47th place in the ranking of states that are considered to be quite good for living. This country is a member of the Schengen zone, since 2004, one of the EU countries, so those who want to become part of Europe choose Latvia as their place of residence. Most emigrants from the CIS countries and the Russian Federation are trying to become citizens of this small state.
The life expectancy of people in Latvia is about 72 years, while women in the country live on average 11 years longer than men: the life expectancy of the female population is 78 years, the male life is 67.
According to statistics, the numberpopulation in Latvia is significantly reduced every year. Experts say that the number of people living in the country will never exceed 2 million people. There is no tendency to increase its number over the past 20 years, so it’s not worth hoping that during crisis times the birth rate will exceed the death rate. Since 2012, the rate of decline has slowed significantly due to an increase in the birth rate in all regions of the country. The birth rate in Riga especially increased by 7% and in the Riga region by 3.1%. According to the CSB, in Latvia in 12 regions, the birth rate is rather high, but the death rate is not decreasing. In order for the population to grow, it is necessary that every family has at least three or four children.
