Latvia

The Republic of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Republika) is a country in Northern Europe. Latvia has land borders with its two fellow Baltic states ? Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south ? and Russia and Belarus to the east. In the west Latvia shares a maritime border with Sweden. The capital of Latvia, Riga (Latvian: R?ga), is the largest city in the Baltic States.

Religion

The population is mostly Christian. The majority being Lutheran (556 000, according to 2003 data), with smaller percentages Roman Catholic (430 405) and Eastern Orthodox (350 000). Another religion is Dievturi (The Godkeepers), which has historical roots based on pre-Christian era mythology. There are also Jews (9883 in 2005) in Latvia who are now mainly a remainder from the Soviet Union, as during World War II the Jewish Community (according to the the last official census in 1935 there were 93,479 Jews in the country, or approximately 5% of the total population) was annihilated.

Related Topics:
Christian - Lutheran - 2003 - Roman Catholic - Eastern Orthodox - Dievturi - Jews - 2005 - Soviet Union - World War II - Census - 1935

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