Latvia

EuropeCapital city: RigaCapital metro: RigaPresident: Edgars RinkēvičsPrime Minister: Evika Siliņa
2026 population
1.8M
Rank #154 globally
Area
65k km² (25k sq mi)
Metros tracked
7
79% of population in metros
Composite score
7.6
Rank #111 globally

population: Monthly national estimate (1 May 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 7 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography7 metros

Latvia metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
7 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 7 tracked metros
7 metros
🗂️ Statistical Regions

5 entries listed under Latvia. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

5 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Latvian
Currency
Euro (€)
Government
Parliamentary republic
Legislature
Saeima
Demonym
Latvian
Time zones
UTC+02:00, UTC+03:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+371
Internet TLD
.lv
ISO 3166
LV
Established
1918
Highest point
Gaiziņkalns (312 m (1,024 ft))
National anthem
Dievs, svētī Latviju!

Facts via Wikidata.

📰 In the news1 story
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Human Dev. Index
#41 / 191
0.889
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#98 / 193
$48.6B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#49 / 193
$26.3k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#47 / 190
$46.1k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#48 / 192
$25.0k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#75 / 194
76.4 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
43.1 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#80 / 194
69%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
-1.0%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#149 / 193
30/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#54 / 193
11.8%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#15 / 175
0.97
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#74 / 166
34.0
World Bank · 2023
Internet users
#40 / 193
93%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#112 / 185
3.7%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#108 / 192
3.5 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#45 / 186
73%
Ember · 2025

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations4 full memberships

Security

Political & Economic

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History12 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Other

Evika Siliņa✦ Current

2023Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 9m 18d

Edgars Rinkēvičs✦ Current

2023Present

President

Tenure: 2y 11m 25d

Egils Levits

20192023

President

Tenure: 3y 11m 29d

Krišjānis Kariņš

20192023

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4y 7m 23d

Māris Kučinskis

20162019

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 11m 12d

Raimonds Vējonis

20152019

President

Tenure: 3y 11m 29d

Laimdota Straujuma

20142016

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 20d

Andris Bērziņš

20112015

President

Tenure: 3y 11m 29d

First Republic

Kārlis Ulmanis

19361940

President

Tenure: 4y 3m 10dauthoritarian (1934 coup)

Alberts Kviesis

19301936

President

Tenure: 6y 2dFarmers Union

Gustavs Zemgals

19271930

President

Tenure: 3y 1d

Jānis Čakste

19181927

President

Tenure: 8y 3m 24dhead of state from independence
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#105 · 0.1%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Latvia · share of world power, 1918–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19454 interstate wars · click to expand
Combat deaths:
Russian SFSR,Latvian SSR
Combat deaths:
Russian SFSR,Other Soviet republics,Mongolian People's Party
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
1.9m
#150 in the world
Since 1800
3.19×
from 591k
Past its peak
−29.4%
peaked at 2.7m in 1989
Share of world
0.02%
0.06% in 1800
666k1.3m2.0m2.7m18001850190019502000
Latvia · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Latvia is past its peak, which is less unusual than it sounds: the two lines here can point in opposite directions, and for most of Europe and East Asia they now both point down.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Latvia: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak
1989
2.7m; already passed
2050
1.5m
95% band 1.1m to 2.1m
2100
925k
95% band 234k to 2.9m
2100 against 2025
0.50×
median falling from 2024
Deaths outnumber births
since 1992
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
760k1.5m2.3m3.0m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
33k born · 24k died · +6k net migration
TFR 2.08 · life expectancy 64.6 · median age 29.2
1960
35k born · 21k died · +11k net migration
TFR 1.94 · life expectancy 70.3 · median age 31.2
1970
34k born · 27k died · +12k net migration
TFR 1.96 · life expectancy 70.2 · median age 33.2
1980
35k born · 32k died · +3k net migration
TFR 1.88 · life expectancy 69.1 · median age 33.9
1990
38k born · 35k died · -13k net migration
TFR 1.99 · life expectancy 69.5 · median age 33.5
2000
20k born · 33k died · -16k net migration
TFR 1.24 · life expectancy 70.2 · median age 37.0
2010
20k born · 30k died · -36k net migration
TFR 1.37 · life expectancy 73.0 · median age 40.1
2020
18k born · 28k died · -3k net migration
TFR 1.55 · life expectancy 75.5 · median age 42.8
Show all 16 decades
2030
13k born · 27k died · -886 net migration
TFR 1.38 · life expectancy 77.2 · median age 45.0
2040
13k born · 26k died · -362 net migration
TFR 1.41 · life expectancy 78.7 · median age 48.1
2050
12k born · 25k died · -290 net migration
TFR 1.44 · life expectancy 80.2 · median age 47.9
2060
9k born · 23k died · -616 net migration
TFR 1.47 · life expectancy 81.6 · median age 49.1
2070
9k born · 21k died · -367 net migration
TFR 1.49 · life expectancy 83.0 · median age 51.7
2080
8k born · 19k died · -463 net migration
TFR 1.50 · life expectancy 84.3 · median age 52.4
2090
7k born · 16k died · -191 net migration
TFR 1.50 · life expectancy 85.5 · median age 52.0
2100
6k born · 16k died · -64 net migration
TFR 1.52 · life expectancy 86.6 · median age 53.2

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

🏆 National Teams

Latvia on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.