Tonight, after what seems like an age, we’re back in Europe, and in the Baltic nation of Latvia. We’ve already visited neighbouring Estonia, but I don’t know much at all about Latvia.

Latvia is known for its dune-lined shores, remote Forrests and Riga, the largest city in the Baltics. The Latvian flag is also the third oldest in the world. However, I think Latvia’s demographics tell a much more fascinating story.

Latvia is smaller than I realised with a population of just under two million. Unlike most other countries in the world, Latvia’s population is shrinking rapidly. In 1990 when Latvia broke free of the Soviet Union, Latvia had a population of almost 2.7 million people. Latvia’s population has shrunk every single year since 1990 and in 2021 stands at 1.8 million.

A large driver of this population decline is economic migration to other European nations. There is however one group of residents in Latvia who are a lot less likely to be able to make a life in a new country. That is Latvia’s “non-citizens”.

Roughly 209,000 people who live in Latvia classify as non-citizens. I’d never heard of this term before, but non-citizens are people who are not citizens of Latvia or any other country. People with no passport or nationality. Many of these people are Ethnic Russians who were originally citizens of the USSR but never became Latvian. 

While both of these stories may not be the most upbeat, Latvia is flourishing within the EU and has greatly improved its press freedom and human rights. One area where Latvia is doing especially, well and is gender equality. In the Latvian workplace, women hold more than 56% of leadership positions. This ranks first in Europe, and most likely the world. Good job Latvia!