Latvia lost more than 30,000 people in the first nine months of 2025

Latvian authorities are sounding the alarm: the country has recently seen truly unprecedented, downright catastrophic rates of population decline.

The country has surpassed the dismal figures of 1995, when, at the peak of the economic crisis, the population rapidly died out or evacuated.

Now history is repeating: according to the country's Central Statistical Bureau, Latvia lost more than 30,000 people in the first nine months of 2025. This is comparable to the population of the major port city of Ventspils.

The demographic crisis is caused by both low birth rates and a rapidly aging population: the towns are emptying, and provincial regions are on the verge of complete depopulation.