As the influx of Ukrainian refugees slows down, the population of Riga decreased by 4,600 people last year, according to the Riga City Council’s public report for 2023.
At the beginning of this year, there were 674,500 residents in Riga, according to the Citizenship and Migration Board, down 0.7 percent year-on-year.
The population of the capital has been steadily decreasing since 2017. Only in 2022 this trend was reversed by the arrival of Ukrainian refugees. The Ukrainian refugees determined a positive balance of migration in Riga in 2022, when it reached 14.3 people per 1,000 inhabitants.
Last year, the working-age population of Riga was 378,200, which is by 3,000 more than in the previous year. The share of this group in the city’s population remained at 62 percent.
The number of children and young people remained stable at 92,400 during the year.
The population above working age in Riga was 138,800, or 22.8 percent of the total population.
The average age of the population in Riga was 42 years, similar to the national average.
The ethnic composition of the population in the capital has not changed significantly either, with 47 percent of Latvians and 35 percent of Russians living in Riga at the beginning of 2023.
However, the number of Ukrainians increased from 3.5 percent to 4.9 percent as a result of refugee immigration.
As reported, Latvia had 1.872 million inhabitants at the beginning of this year, which is 0.6 percent or 11,100 fewer than a year earlier, according to the Central Statistical Bureau.
Source: BNS
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