Latvia is World’s First in Terms of Population Decline

It is hard to believe, but a couple of months ago there were 1,888 thousand of us, and now there are only 1,884 thousand of us. Latvia came out on top in the world in terms of population decline among all countries of the world, and with a huge margin.

The rate of population decline by country

Изображение черепа

  • Latvia – 0.98%
  • Bulgaria – 0.68%
  • Croatia – 0.59%
  • Wallis and Futuna – 0.56% (only 66 out of 11,683 people)
  • Romania – 0.5%
  • Ukraine – 0.49%
  • Nauru – 0.46% (only 52 out of 11,312 people)
  • Lebanon – 0.45%
  • Lithuania – 0.42%
  • Bermuda – 0.39% (only 237 out of 61,070 people)
  • Portugal – 0.35%
  • Hungary – 0.35%
  • Serbia – 0.33%
  • Moldova – 0.28%
  • Japan – 0.26%
  • Holy See – 0.25% (only two out of 801 people)
  • Estonia – 0.23%
  • Poland – 0.2%
  • Belarus – 0.19%
  • Greece – 0.16%
  • Italy – 0.13%
  • Puerto Rico – 0.11%
  • Guadeloupe – 0.08%
  • Georgia – 0.07%
  • Russia – 0.05%
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.05%

The data has been taken from the Worldometers website.

Meanwhile, the population of Lithuania almost reached the level of population in Latvia in 1991, when it was the largest in its history – 2.7 million people.

Population Comparison in Baltic countries in 1991 and 2018

  • The population of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991 was 2 million 668 thousand people.
  • The population of Latvia in 2018 is 1 million 888 thousand people (in 2019 already 1 million 884 thousand, a decrease of ≈ 30%)
  • The population of the Lithuanian SSR in 1991 was 3 million 702 thousand people.
  • The population of Lithuania in 2018 is 2 million 794 thousand people. (decrease ≈ 25%)
  • The population of the Estonian SSR in 1991 was 1 million 570 thousand people.
  • The population of Estonia in 2018 is 1 million 319 thousand people. (decrease ≈ 16%)

The given numbers differ in different sources. For example Wikipedia shows smaller population for the year 1990 than in atlases. The public services of the countries concerned overestimate the population compared to the UN estimates. There is a suspicion that in reality the population is significantly lower than even these estimates – people remember how the census took place when citizens and aliens of Latvia living in England were counted twice (although they shouldn’t have been counted at all).

Also consider reading: Do you love Latvia as much as I do?