Latvia is a religiously diverse, predominantly Christian country with no single absolute religious majority, though it has high numbers of both Lutherans, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians. Lutherans are historically concentrated in the west/center, Catholics in the east (Latgale), and Orthodox believers are largely from the Russian-speaking population.
Latvia is a multidenominational Christian nation. Lutherans are its largest community, followed by 25%-35%. It predominates in the Western and Central Latvia. Catholicism is the faith of 20%-25% of Latvia's inhabitants and the prime religion of Latgale (Eastern Latvia).
Latvia has among the lowest population shares of Muslims in Europe (0,05%) and is among the few countries that have no mosques. Nearly all Latvia's Muslims (or their forefathers) came as a result of foreign pressure. First Latvia's Muslims served in the 19th century Russian army or were its prisoners of war.
According to the Annual Report of Religious Organizations and their Activities published by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), based on 2022 data, the largest religious groups by population share are Lutherans (38 percent), Roman Catholics(18 percent), and Latvian Orthodox Christians (14 percent), the latter being ...
As the southernmost and largest of the three Baltic states, Lithuania, with its 2.8 million inhabitants, is the only country of the former Soviet Union that has a Catholic majority of 80%, while Catholics are in the minority in Estonia and Latvia.
In mid-June 1941, on the eve of Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, 14,000 citizens of Latvia, including several thousand Jews, were deported by the Soviet authorities to Siberia and other parts of Soviet Asia as politically undesirable elements.
Because of the state policy of atheism during the Soviet era and the general European trend of secularization, religiosity declined drastically, and today a growing percentage of Latvians claims not to follow any religion, with low church attendance.
Recent studies have shown that Lithuanian and Latvian populations are genetically close to their neighbors: Estonians (speaking a Finnic language of the Uralic language family), and Belarusians and Poles (speaking East and West Slavic languages of the Indo-European family respectively) (Urnikyte et al., 2021).
Experts state that the imbalance arrives from lower male life expectancy resulting from health and lifestyle factors: “Men are about three times more likely to smoke, with 31% of the male population smoking compared to just 10% of the female population.
According to the 2021 census, Orthodoxy is the most popular religion in Estonia. 16% of the Estonian population identified themselves as Orthodox and 8% as Lutheran. Some of the population identify themselves as Catholics (0.78%), Baptists (0.47%) or Muslims (0.52%).
The spread of Catholicism in Lithuania began in the 13th century. During the reign of Mindaugas ( r. 1230s–1263), the Dominican Order and the Franciscans started establishing their presence in the region. In 1231, Saint Hyacinth of Poland, a Dominican, arrived in Lithuania.
Latvians (Latvian: latvieši) are a Baltic ethnic group and nation native to Latvia and the immediate geographical region, the Baltics. They are occasionally also referred to as Letts, especially in older bibliography. Latvians share a common Latvian language, culture, history and ancestry.
A 2023 Gallup International survey found that Sweden was the country with the highest percentage of citizens that stated they do not believe in a god. In 2020, the majority (78%) of the global nonreligious or unaffiliated demographic resided in Asia-Pacific.
Yes, English is widely spoken in Latvia, especially by younger people and in tourist areas like Riga, where many in the service industry, IT, and educated professionals speak it well; you can generally get by with English, but learning basic Latvian phrases like "Paldies" (thank you) is appreciated. While Russian is also common, especially among older generations, English proficiency is high and growing, though it becomes less common in rural areas.
According to the Speaker of Saeima, all of Latvia's foreign policy is linked to Ukraine and efforts to support it – and will continue to be so. “We will continue to do everything we can to help you become a full member of the European Union.
Before it was called Latvia, the territory was known by names like Livonia (Livland) under German/Crusader rule, later partitioned into Swedish Livonia, Polish Livonia (Inflanty Voivodeship), and the Duchy of Courland, eventually becoming Russian Governorates before the modern nation emerged, with local areas also having names like Zemgale, Tālava, and Kursa.
