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Genetik/Peoples/Latvians

Latvians

Латыши · Q49540

language area per Glottologcensus counts
1,187,891
Latvia, census 2021 (national and/or ethnic group, UN)
1,210,098
sum of censuses in 8 countries, 2001-2026
Indo-European
language family (Glottolog)

In brief

The largest documented number lives in Latvia: 1,187,891 people in the 2021 census.

Official figures exist for 8 countries; together they add up to 1,210,098. This is not an estimate of the world total: the censuses were held in different years (2001-2026) and define belonging differently, and countries without such data are not counted.

In Russia's 2020 census (reference date 1 October 2021), 8,516 people identified with the nationality "Латыши" (Latvians)1. That is less than 0.01% of the 130,587,364 residents who stated a nationality.

Rosstat also assigns 5 other self-designations to this nationality (listed in Russian in the source table).

Main language: Latvian. Glottolog classifies it in the Indo-European family.

Where they live: census figures

Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.

Latvia2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Latvian» · [2]
1,187,891
Russia2021 · ethnicity / nationality · «Латыши» · [1]
8,516
Ukraine2001 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Letts» · [3]
5,079
Estonia2026 · ethnicity / nationality · «Latvian» · [4]
4,272
Lithuania2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Latvian» · [5]
1,572
Belarus2019 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Latvian» · [6]
1,534
Kazakhstan2021 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Latvian» · [7]
1,157
Moldova, Republic of2014 · national and/or ethnic group, UN · «Letts» · [8]
77
Sum across 8 countries1,210,098

In detail: Russia, 2021 census

Sex, urban and rural, Russian regions

Sex

Men 4,180 · 49.1%Women 4,336 · 50.9%

Urban and rural

Urban 6,197 · 72.8%Rural 2,319 · 27.2%

Where: the 10 regions with the largest numbers

Moscow (city)
1,037
Krasnoyarsk Krai
747
Saint Petersburg (city)
707
Omsk Oblast
628
Republic of Bashkortostan
465
Moscow Oblast
459
Pskov Oblast
215
Leningrad Oblast
211
Kaliningrad Oblast
210
Novosibirsk Oblast
201

Groups counted within this nationality

Latgalians371

Source [1]: Rosstat, 2020 census, vol. 5, table 1

Languages and their lineage

Latvian

  1. Indo-Europeanindo1319
  2. Classical Indo-Europeanclas1257
  3. Balto-Slavicbalt1263
  4. Eastern Balticeast2280
  5. Latvianlatv1249

People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.

Peoples of the same language family

PakistanisRussiansMarathiGermansSpaniardsMexicansUkrainiansEnglishIrishAmericansItaliansRomaniansNepali (Khas-Arya)DutchBelarusiansTajiksCzechsScotsSerbsBulgariansSlovaksArmeniansCubansLithuanians

Sources

  1. Rosstat. National composition of the population of the Russian Federation. Results of the 2020 All-Russian Population Census (reference date 1 October 2021), vol. 5, table 1. Tom5_tab1_VPN-2020.xlsx (archived copy)
  2. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Latvia, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  3. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Ukraine, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  4. Statistics Estonia (Statistikaamet). There are people of 224 different ethnic nationalities living in Estonia (Statistics Estonia news; population-register based, NOT the 2021 census). https://stat.ee/en/news/there-are-people-of-224-different-ethnic-nationalities-living-in-e…
  5. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Lithuania, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  6. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Belarus, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  7. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Kazakhstan, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  8. United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Republic of Moldova, Census - de facto - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
  9. Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)