Ethnic Groups
Latvians have been always the largest ethnic group in Latvia during the past century, but minority peoples have always been numerous. Before WW II the proportion of non-Latvians was approximately 25%, the Russians being the largest minority (app. 10%), followed by Jews (approx. 5%), Germans and Poles (2-3%). After World War 2 only small numbers of Jews and Germans remained and following a massive immigration of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, Latvians almost became a minority. In 1989, the proportion of Latvians had decreased to only 52% (75.5% in 1935). Despite the decreasing number of Latvians due to low fertility rates, the proportion of Latvians has considerably increased during the past two decades and reached 62.1% in 2011 (slightly higher than the 62.0% in 1959). This is due to large scale emigration of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The number of these peoples almost halved between 1989 and 2011.
| Ethnic group |
census 1925 | census 1935 | census 1959 | census 1970 | census 1979 | census 1989 | census 2000 | census 2011 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Latvians | 1,354,126 | 73.4 | 1,472,612 | 75.5 | 1,297,881 | 62.0 | 1,341,805 | 56.8 | 1,344,105 | 53.7 | 1,387,757 | 52.0 | 1,370,703 | 57.7 | 1,285,136 | 62.1 |
| Russians | 193,648 | 10.5 | 206,499 | 10.6 | 556,448 | 26.6 | 704,599 | 29.8 | 821,464 | 32.8 | 905,515 | 34.0 | 703,243 | 29.6 | 557,119 | 26.9 |
| Belarusians | 38,010 | 2.1 | 26,867 | 1.4 | 61,587 | 2.9 | 94,898 | 4.0 | 111,505 | 4.5 | 119,702 | 4.5 | 97,150 | 4.1 | 68,202 | 3.3 |
| Ukrainians | 512 | 0.0 | 1,844 | 0.1 | 29,440 | 1.4 | 53,461 | 2.3 | 66,703 | 2.7 | 92,101 | 3.5 | 63,644 | 2.7 | 45,798 | 2.2 |
| Poles | 51,143 | 2.8 | 48,949 | 2.5 | 59,774 | 2.9 | 63,045 | 2.7 | 62,690 | 2.5 | 60,416 | 2.3 | 59,505 | 2.5 | 44,772 | 2.2 |
| Lithuanians | 23,192 | 1.3 | 22,913 | 1.2 | 32,383 | 1.6 | 40,589 | 1.7 | 37,818 | 1.5 | 34,630 | 1.3 | 33,430 | 1.4 | 24,479 | 1.2 |
| Jews | 95,675 | 5.2 | 93,479 | 4.8 | 36,592 | 1.8 | 36,680 | 1.6 | 28,331 | 1.1 | 22,897 | 0.9 | 10,385 | 0.4 | 6,437 | 0.3 |
| Roma | 2,870 | 0.2 | 3,839 | 0.2 | 4,301 | 0.2 | 5,427 | 0.2 | 6,134 | 0.3 | 7,044 | 0.3 | 8,205 | 0.3 | 6,489 | 0.3 |
| Germans | 70,964 | 3.8 | 62,144 | 3.2 | 1,609 | 0.1 | 5,413 | 0.2 | 3,299 | 0.1 | 3,783 | 0.1 | 3,465 | 0.1 | 3,042 | 0.1 |
| Estonians | 7,893 | 0.4 | 7,014 | 0.4 | 4,610 | 0.2 | 4,334 | 0.2 | 3,681 | 0.2 | 3,312 | 0.1 | 2,652 | 0.1 | 2,007 | 0.1 |
| Livonians | 1,268 | 0.1 | 944 | 0.0 | 185 | 0.0 | 48 | 0.0 | 107 | 0.0 | 135 | 0.0 | 180 | 0.0 | 250 | 0.1 |
| Others | 5,504 | 0.3 | 3,398 | 0.2 | 8,648 | 0.4 | 13,828 | 0.6 | 16,979 | 0.7 | 29,275 | 1.1 | 24,824 | 1.1 | 26,640 | 1.3 |
| Total | 1,844,805 | 1,950,502 | 2,093,458 | 2,364,127 | 2,502,816 | 2,666,567 | 2,377,383 | 2,070,371 | ||||||||
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Latvia
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