Europe
To which language should you translate to localize in Latvia?
Introduction
Language
Official language
Latvian 86%
T-index
4.4%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Other languages
Minority languages: Low German, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Frisian, Romani, Danish
Immigrant languages: Turkish, Polish, Balkan, Kurdish, Russian
English
High proficiency (EF) – 26 out of 112 countries/regions in the world- 22/35 position in Europe.
Demography
Capital: Riga
Currency: Euro
Population: 1.88 million
Population density: 31 /km2
Economy
GDP: 38.87 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 20,642.2 billion USD (2021)
Exports: 16.1 billion USD (2020)
Statistics
Internet users: 92% penetration, 1.71 million
Unemployment rate: 7.5% (2021)
Urbanisation: 68.22% (2019)
Literacy: 99.9% (2018)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals and comma as decimal separator
Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00371
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$19.3 billion (2020). Refined Petroleum ($1.78B), Broadcasting Equipment ($747M), Packaged Medicaments ($640M), Hard Liquor ($487M), and Cars ($455M), importing mostly from Lithuania ($2.95B), Russia ($2.82B), Germany ($1.68B), Poland ($1.65B), and Estonia ($1.37B).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 93% have an account with a financial institution
• 17% have a credit card
• 61% make online purchases
Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 80.3 out of 100) ranked 11th out of 24 countries in Europe ranked 19th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank)
Exports
$16.1 billion (2020). Broadcasting Equipment ($794M), Sawn Wood ($787M), Wheat ($695M), Fuel Wood ($557M), and Packaged Medicaments ($488M), exporting mostly to Lithuania ($2.47B), Estonia ($1.59B), Russia ($1.26B), Germany ($1.1B), and United Kingdom ($892M).
Main local online stores
ss.lv, 1a.lv and amazon.de, ebay.co.uk, amazon.co.uk and amazon.com
Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (74.8 out of 100) ranked 13th out of 45 European countries ranked 18th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 25th out of 39 European countries, 38th out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service Exports (2018)
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most specialised products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Latvia observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Latvia is not specialized in
Source: OEC

T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language Latvian, Russian
Information channels
The media reflect the linguistic and cultural split between Latvian and Russian speakers. TV is the leading medium and the sector is dominated by top commercial station TV3, two public networks and the Baltic variants of Russian networks. TV3’s owner, Sweden’s MTG, is a major player in the broadcasting sector. Russian-language media is dominated by pro-Kremlin, Russia-made content. In response, Latvia has given closer official scrutiny to media policy and in 2016 temporarily banned a Russian TV network for “inciting hatred”. Public Latvian Radio (LR) dominates the radio market, thanks partly to the popularity of music station Radio 2. Public radio and TV are financed by state subsidies and advertising. The BBC World Service in English is relayed in Riga on 100.5 FM. Newspapers – all of them privately-owned – reflect a variety of political views. Many titles have suffered declining circulations. By late 2015, more than 1.6 million Latvians were online (Internetworldstats). Latvian social network Draugiem.lv rivals Facebook in popularity. Inbox.lv portal, offering email, dating and photo services, is one of the most-visited sites.
The press
Diena – daily
Neatkariga Rita Avize (NRA) – daily
Dienas Bizness – business daily
Latvijas Avize – daily
Vesti Segodnya – daily, in Russian
MK-Latvia – weekly, in Russian
Television
Latvian Television (LTV) – public, operates LTV1 and LTV7
TV3 – commercial
LNT – commercial
TV6 – commercial
PBK – Riga-based, pan-Baltic TV in Russian
Radio
Latvian Radio – public; six networks
Radio Skonto – commercial
Radio SWH – commercial
Star FM – commercial
News agency
LETA – English-language pages
BNS (Baltic News Service)
Delfi – news portal, in Latvian and Russian
TVNET – news portal, in Latvian and Russian
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
92% penetration, 1.71 million
Share of web traffic by device
38.80% mobile phones, 59.69% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.48% tablet devices, others 0.02%
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
29.92 mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
62.44 mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 141.4%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 90.5%
Most popular web search engines
Google (96.13%), Yandex Ru(1.43%), Bing (1.21%), Yahoo (0.62%), Duckduckgo (0.37%), Mail.ru (0.14%)
Most used social media
Facebook (65.19%), Pinterest (12), Twitter(11.33%), Instagram (7.23%), YouTube (2.71%), Tumblr (0.59%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
75.32 yrs (2017)
Average age of the population
43.9 yrs (2020)
Healthcare expenditure
6.3% of GDP (2019)
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Dialects spoken in Latvia

Legend
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Kurzemes Dziļās (tāmnieku)
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Vidzemes Izloksnes
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Nesēliskās Nedziļās
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Nesēliskās Dziļās
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Sēliskās Nedziļās
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Seliskās Dziļās
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Zemgaliskās bez Anaptikses
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Zemgaliskās ar Anaptiksi
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Kursiskās Izloksnes
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Kurzemes Nedziļās
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Vidar Nordli Mathisen, Unsplash