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- Latvians made up 44.03% of the population of Riga, while ethnic Russians formed 37.88%, Belarusians 3.72%, Ukrainians 3.66%, Poles 1.83% and other ethnicities 8.10%. There is also a high percentage of Russian residents, making up over 37% of the population. Other ethnicities include Ukrainians, Poles and Belarusians.
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Riga was founded in 1201, and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. [13] Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden.
Demographic features of the population of the historical territory of Latvia include population density, ethnic background, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
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Riga, city and capital of Latvia. It occupies both banks of the Daugava (Western Dvina) River, 9 miles (15 km) above its mouth on the Gulf of Riga. Pop. (2011) 658,640; (2015 est.) 641,007.
An ancient settlement of the Livs and Kurs, Riga emerged as a trading post in the late 12th century. Seagoing ships found a natural harbour where the small Ridzene River once flowed into the Daugava, a major trade route to points east and south from the Viking Age onward. Albert of Buxhoevden arrived in 1199 with 23 ships of Crusaders and established the military Order of the Brothers of the Sword (reorganized in 1237 as the Livonian Order, a branch of the Teutonic Order). The city of Riga, founded in 1201, was the seat of Albert’s bishopric (archbishopric in 1253) and a base for conquering the lands of Livonia to the northeast, Courland to the west, and Semigallia to the south. The city joined the Hanseatic League in 1282 and became the dominant centre of trade on the Baltic Sea’s eastern shore. The Reformation gained a foothold in Riga in the 1520s; the Livonian Order was secularized, and, along with the Livonian Confederation, dissolved in 1561.
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Riga was briefly an independent city-state but passed to Poland in 1581. It was captured by Sweden in 1621 and then taken in 1709–10 by Peter the Great, with Sweden formally ceding the city to Russia by the Peace of Nystad in 1721. Riga’s German-speaking nobles and merchants retained local privileges under all of the above monarchies. In the late 18th century the city was a haven of Enlightenment thought; the publisher Hartknoch printed major treatises by philosophers Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Gottfried von Herder, and Immanuel Kant as well as German translations of the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The population grew exponentially in the 1800s, spurred by the 1817–19 abolition of serfdom in Lifland and Kurland as well as by the expansion of railroads (1861). The city’s manufacturing sector expanded to include foundries and machine works, shipbuilding yards, and factories that produced railroad cars, electric appliances, chemicals, and, from the early 1900s, automobiles and airplanes. The removal of Riga’s medieval fortress walls began in 1857 to speed business, and a railroad bridge across the Daugava was built in 1872. Railroads also made it possible for Latvians to travel from across the country to the first Latvian national song festival, organized in 1873 by the Riga Latvian Society. Telegraph (1852) and telephone (1882) connected Riga’s citizens to the world, and modernizing infrastructure, such as gasworks (1862) and a centralized electrical supply (1905), improved the quality of life for Rigans.
On the eve of World War I, Riga was the Russian Empire’s third largest city, with a population of 517,000. From 1915 to 1917, however, one of the war’s front lines lay along the Daugava, resulting in heavy damage on both shores; hundreds of thousands were relocated into Russia, and 400 factories were evacuated with all their machinery, never to return.
Today Riga’s port facilitates export and transit trade from Russia and Belarus to European ports and beyond; a daily ferry carries passengers and cars to Stockholm. The Via Baltica highway is a major trucking route to Tallinn, Kaunas, and Warsaw. Riga International Airport is the hub of the national airline, airBaltic, and is served by daily flights to most European countries. Riga’s factories, many of them now affiliates of transnational corporations, build and repair ships, machine tools, rolling stock, diesel engines, and streetcars. Biotechnology and information technology are growing economic sectors, and services, notably tourism, are increasingly important. Riga’s municipal government is typically formed by a coalition of diverse political parties. The city’s Russian community, which accounted for some two-fifths of Riga’s population in the early 21st century, maintains strong ties to Russia, and it was instrumental in electing the city’s first ethnic Russian mayor in 2009.
The historic centre of Riga was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. Many medieval buildings survive, among them the 13th-century Riga Dom (cathedral), the 14th-century Riga Castle (1330), and merchants’ homes and warehouses. The canal around the city’s Old Town was the fortress moat. Nearby, many elaborate facades in the Jugendstil artistic style testify to Riga’s wealth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the public buildings that were renovated in the 1990s was the National Opera, first built as the Riga German Theatre in 1863. The 14th-century House of Blackheads, damaged during World War II and razed in 1954, was rebuilt in 2000. Early 21st-century construction included high-rise towers, a hockey stadium that hosted the 2006 Ice Hockey World Championship, and the National Library, completed 2013.
- Guntis Smidchens
Jul 30, 2024 · Ethnicity Share of Latvians Share of Russians Share of Belarussians ... Neighbourhoods Riga. 30.07.2024. Neighbourhoods Valmiera. 30.07.2024. Terr. units 2009–21 ...
3 days ago · Geography & Travel Countries of the World. Latvia. Also known as: Latvija, Latvijas Republika, Republic of Latvia. Written by. Kazimierz Maciej Smogorzewski. Freelance writer on contemporary history. London Correspondent, Kurier Polski (Warsaw), 1957–81. Founder and Editor, Free Europe, 1939–45. Author of Joseph Pilsudski, soldat de...
Jul 30, 2024 · Population by ethnicity in regions, cities, municipalities, towns, neighbourhoods and densely populated areas at the beginning of year 2012 - 2024.
