ACOG - Latvia  - IBM

Geography

Location: Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and Lithuania

Area:
total area: 64,100 sq km
land area: 64,100 sq km
comparative area: slightly larger than West Virginia

Land boundaries: total 1,078 km, Belarus 141 km, Estonia 267 km, Lithuania 453 km, Russia 217 km

Coastline: 531 km


People

Population: 2,762,899 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 22% (female 294,521; male 304,830)
15-64 years: 65% (female 933,003; male 870,128)
65 years and over: 13% (female 247,476; male 112,941)

Population growth rate: 0.5% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 13.71 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 12.49 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: 3.76 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Infant mortality rate: 21 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 69.65 years
male: 64.6 years
female: 74.95 years

Total fertility rate: 1.97 children born/woman

Ethnic divisions: Latvian 51.8%, Russian 33.8%, Byelorussian 4.5%, Ukrainian 3.4%, Polish 2.3%, other 4.2%

Religions: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox

Languages: Lettish (official), Lithuanian, Russian, other

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1989)
total population: 100%
male: 100%
female: 99%


Government

Names:
conventional long form: Republic of Latvia
conventional short form: Latvia

Type: republic

Capital: Riga

Independence: 6 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Constitution: newly elected Parliament in 1993 restored the 1933 constitution


Economy

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $12.3 billion

National product real growth rate: 2%

National product per capita: $4,480

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.9%

Unemployment rate: 6.5%

Electricity:
capacity: 2,080,000 kW
production: 5.5 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 1,864 kWh



Olympic Factoid
Pin trading was one of the most popular Olympic sports, with more than 1.2 million pins changing hands during the Games in the Coca Cola Pin Trading Center at Centennial Olympic Park.