EUROPE

Latvia

A Baltic country where forest covers more than half the land and Riga guards Europe's finest collection of Art Nouveau buildings. Latvia sings its history, quite literally, in vast choir festivals.

WHAT THE FLAG MEANS ◢

Two dark carmine-red bands with a narrower white stripe between them. Article 4 of the constitution says only that the national flag of Latvia shall be red with a band of white. The deep shade, known as Latvian red, is explained by a legend in which a wounded chieftain was carried on a white sheet whose edges were stained with his blood while the centre stayed white.

Latvia FACTS ◢

Capital	Riga
Continent	Europe
Population	1,847,785 (2025)
Area	61,760 km²
Population density	30/km²
Currency	Euro (EUR)
Official language	Latvian
Calling code	+371
Internet TLD	.lv
Time zone	UTC+02:00
Drives on the	Right
ISO codes	LV / LVA

DID YOU KNOW? ◢

Forests blanket over half the country, making it one of Europe's greenest nations.
Riga holds one of the world's largest concentrations of Art Nouveau architecture.
Its enormous Song and Dance Festival gathers tens of thousands of singers and is UNESCO-recognised.
Latvians helped end Soviet rule through the peaceful 'Singing Revolution' of the late 1980s.