Latvia

Latvia is a country in the north of Europe.

It sits beside the Baltic Sea. The land is mostly flat, with gentle hills. There are big forests and many lakes. The capital city is called Riga.

Latvia is in northeastern Europe. It is the middle one of the three Baltic states, with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south, and it lies along the Baltic Sea and a big bay called the Gulf of Riga.

Most of Latvia is low, rolling land: flat lowlands with hills between them. More than half of it is covered in forest, and its coast has about 500 kilometers of sandy beaches. At the start of 2026, about 1.845 million people lived in Latvia, and the official language is Latvian.

Latvia lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga, bounded by Estonia to the north, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast and Lithuania to the south. Britannica describes it as essentially an undulating plain, with fairly flat lowlands alternating with hills; the east is higher, with the Central Vidzeme Upland, and the Kurzeme (Courland) Upland in the west is split by the Venta River.

The Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) counted 1.845 million inhabitants at the beginning of 2026, 0.83 percent fewer than a year earlier, mostly because deaths outnumbered births, with a small net loss from migration. In 2025, 69.8 percent of people lived in cities. Latvia's investment agency gives forest cover as 54 percent of the territory and the coast as about 500 km of white sandy beaches.

Riga is the capital and the biggest city.

It has an old town with tall church towers. Hundreds of its buildings are in a style called Art Nouveau. A big market sells food inside old airplane sheds.

Riga was founded as a port town in 1201 on the Daugava River, and for centuries it was an important trading city. In 2025, about 589,000 people lived there, nearly a third of everyone in Latvia. Its old town, with its church towers, is a World Heritage Site.

Riga is famous for its Art Nouveau buildings, a style from around 1900. UNESCO counts more than 300 of them in the Historic Centre beyond the old town and about 50 in the medieval part. The Central Market opened in 1930 inside five former hangars built for German army aircraft. In the west, the old town of Kuldīga sits where the Venta River meets a stream.

Riga, founded as a port town in 1201 on the right bank of the Daugava, was one of the key Hanseatic League centers of Eastern Europe from the 13th to the 15th century, the largest provincial town of Sweden in the 17th century, and a fast-growing industrial city in the 19th. UNESCO inscribed its Historic Centre in 1997: a medieval core, a 19th-century semicircle of boulevards with a green belt along the City Canal, and former suburbs of 18th- and 19th-century wooden buildings. By the early 1900s Riga had the highest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture of any European city, with about 50 notable buildings in the medieval part and more than 300 in the rest. CSB counted about 589,000 residents in 2025, 31.9 percent of the national population.

The Central Market, built from five former German aircraft hangars and opened in 1930, lies inside the World Heritage area. Kuldīga in Kurzeme, inscribed in 2023, grew from the 13th century at the confluence of the Venta and the Alekšupīte and became the main residence and administrative center of the first ruler of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1561-1795).

Latvia has many rivers and lakes.

The rivers flow into the Baltic Sea. Some rivers run past red cliffs made of sandstone. The highest hill is not very high at all.

Latvia has many rivers that drain into the Baltic Sea. The biggest is the Daugava, which flows for 357 kilometers through Latvia. The Gauja winds through thick forests and past cliffs of red sandstone, such as the Ērgļu (Eagle) Cliffs in Gauja National Park.

Latvia's highest point is Gaiziņkalns, a hill whose top is 311.94 meters above sea level, measured again in 2016. The weather is often cloudy and damp. Summers are often cool and rainy, with June averaging about 17 °C, and winter lasts from mid-December to mid-March. In midsummer, the sun can shine for 18 hours a day.

Latvia's rivers drain to the Baltic: the Daugava (Western Dvina, 357 km within Latvia), the Gauja, the Venta and the Lielupe. Numerous lakes, some up to about 30 km², lie among the hills, many of them forested; the East Latvian Lowland, partly crossed by moraine ridges that impede drainage, has numerous peat bogs. Along the Gauja, sandstone outcrops such as the Ērgļu Cliffs, once called Ērģeļu (Organ) Cliffs, are split into blocks by vertical cracks from crustal movements millions of years ago.

The highest point, Gaiziņkalns, was fixed at 311.94 m above sea level in 2016 by the Ministry of Defence and the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency, replacing a Soviet-era survey's 311.495 m. Prevailing southwesterly Atlantic winds bring high humidity and frequent cloud. Precipitation exceeds about 500 mm on the lowlands and approaches or exceeds 760 mm on the uplands; mean January temperatures range from about -2 °C on the coast to -7 °C in the east, and June averages about 17 °C.

About 1.8 million people live in Latvia.

The official language is Latvian. Many people speak Russian too. Many choirs sing at a giant song festival. In June, people light bonfires on the shortest night.

About 64 percent of people in Latvia are Latvians, and about a quarter are Russians, with smaller groups of Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians and others. The official language is Latvian, and nearly a third of people speak Russian. Latvian and Lithuanian belong to the Baltic branch of languages.

Latvia has many amateur choirs and dance groups. The Latvian Song and Dance Celebration, first held in 1873, takes place every fifth year, and many of its singers and dancers practice all year. On Midsummer, June 23 and 24, many people light bonfires, sing, dance and wear wreaths, and a fresh cheese made with caraway seeds is a traditional food.

CSB data put ethnic Latvians at 63.8 percent of the population at the beginning of 2026, a share that is rising; Britannica puts Russians at about one-fourth, with small Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian groups. Latvian, the official language, forms the Baltic branch of the Indo-European family together with Lithuanian; nearly a third of the population speaks Russian, and smaller numbers speak Romany and Yiddish. Most Latvians are Christians, mainly Lutheran, Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, and about a fourth consider themselves nonreligious.

The Baltic Song and Dance Celebrations, on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list since 2008 (proclaimed 2003), began in Latvia in 1873 and are held there every fifth year; these festivals assemble as many as 40,000 amateur singers and dancers. Midsummer (Jāņi), on June 23 and 24, is a pair of national holidays with bonfires lit from sunset to sunrise, singing, dancing, wildflower and oak-leaf wreaths and Jāņu siers, a fresh cheese with caraway. Latvia's cooking is seasonal, built on meat, fish from the Baltic and produce sold at farmers' markets.