Latvia-Language

Since independence in 1991, the official language of Latvia has been the Baltic language of Latvian, a language closely related to Lithuanian. Latvian is spoken by the ethnic population, known as Letts, who make up 58.6% of the population. Russian is spoken by over 28.9% of the population, mainly Russian immigrants who live in the urban areas of the country. Minority languages include Belarusian, spoken by 3.9% of the population, Ukrainian, spoken by 2.6%, Polish, spoken by 2.5% and Lithuanian, spoken by a smaller population.