LATVIA- FACTSHEET
Location: Northeast Europe, at the coast of Baltic sea;
Area: 64589 square km;
Population: 2,424,150 (in 2000); urban 69%, rural 31%
Borders: Latvia shares a border with Estonia, Lithuania, Russia and Belarus;
Ethnic groups (in 2000) Latvians – 55.8 %, Russians - 32.3%, Belorussians – 3.9%, Ukrainians – 2.9%, Poles 2.2% Lithuanians – 1.3 %, Jews - 0.3%, others – 1.5%.
Capital:
Riga, 788,283 inhabitants (Jan, 2000)
Climate: Maritime,
summer 20-28 °C,
winter – average just below zero
(but temperatures below –20 °C are no surprise to Latvians);
Main
religions: Lutheran protestant, Roman Catholic, and Greek orthodox
Official language: Latvian.
Latvian language is neither Slavonic nor Finno-Ugrian. It is an Indo-European language, together with the Lithuanian language it falls into the Baltic language group.
Currency – Lats, worth 1.79 Euro (you pay 1.79 EURO for
1 Lats);
Inflation - (Dec 1998/Dec
1997) 2.8%;
GDP (per capita, 1999) – 2689 EUR;
Average monthly salary (Last quarter of 2000) – 156.5 Lats = 279.7 EUR
Political system: Latvia is a parliamentary republic, with the Saeima (parliament) elected by general elections. The Saeima in turn elects the president. The government cabinet is nominated by the leading coalition and approved by the parliament.
Latvia is a member of the Council of Europe and an associate member state of the EU. Both the EU and NATO membership are the strategic goals of Latvian foreign policy.