Latvia's population decreases by 88,500 in 4 years: statistics

Latvia's population is almost 2 million, the latest statistics data show.

According to the preliminary data, Latvia currently has a population of 1.978 million, Aija Zigure, head of the Latvian Central Statistical Bureau, announced on Wednesday.

During the last four years, Latvia's population has decreased by 88,500.

Since the beginning of 2011, the number of population in Latvia has reduced by 54,800 due to the international long-term migration and by 33,700 percent due to the number of deaths exceeding the number of births.

In the last four years, 97,000 people have left Latvia and 42,200 have moved here from other countries. About 65 percent of those who moved to Latvia in recent years are Latvians who have returned to their homeland from abroad.

The number of people emigrating from Latvia in the last four years has been decreasing, the national statistics office said.

Ilmars Mezs, head of the Riga Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), also noted the downward trend in emigration but said the number of people leaving Latvia was still very high.

"Even if it dropped to some 15,000 people leaving this year, it is still a very large number. In the age group of 20-40 years, the proportion of emigrants in certain age brackets exceeds 30 percent. It is one-third of the nation's young people," he said. Endit