Latvians

This article is about the ethnic group called Latvians or Letts. For the inhabitants of Latvia, see Demographics of Latvia.

Latvians
Latvieši

Krišjānis Barons · Krišjānis Valdemārs · Andrejs Pumpurs · Oskars Kalpaks · Jānis Čakste · Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics · Kārlis Ulmanis
Regions with significant populations
Latvia	1,438,682 (2010)
Great Britain	30,000 - 200,000
United States	94,341 [1]
Russia	28,520 [2]; [3]; [4]
Canada	37,000 [5]
Brazil	25,000 [6]
New Zealand	20,000 [7]
Australia	18,938 [8]
Ireland	14,000 [9]
Germany	9,100 [10]
Ukraine	5,079 [11]
Sweden	4,000 lt:Latviai
Lithuania	3,000 [12]
Norway	2,856 [13]
Estonia	2,300 [14]
Belarus	2,239 [15]
Kazakhstan	1,900 [16]
Uzbekistan	1,600 [17]
Spain	1,440 [18]
France	956 [19]
Switzerland	736 [20]
Belgium	679 [21]
Turkmenistan	500 [22]
Venezuela	400 lt:Latviai
Moldova	400 [23]
Georgia	200 lt:Latviai
Argentina	200 lt:Latviai
Chile	100 lt:Latviai
Religion
Christian(divided among Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism and large non-religious population, Dievturi minority.
Related ethnic groups
Lithuanians, Kursenieki, Latgalians, Semigallians, Selians

Latvians or Letts (Latvian: latvieši; Livonian: laett) are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.

History

Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia. A Finnic-speaking tribe known as the Livs settled among the Latvians and modulated the name to "Latvis," meaning "forest-clearers," which is how medieval German settlers also referred to these peoples. The German colonizers changed this name to "Lette" and called their initially small colony Livland. The Latin form, Livonia, gradually referred to the whole territory of the modern-day Latvia as well as southern Estonia, which had fallen under German dominion. Latvians and Lithuanians are the only surviving members of the Baltic peoples and Baltic languages of the Indo-European family.

Genetics

Latvians show the characteristic R1a genes of the paternal ancestorship at 39.5%. Such large frequencies of R1a have been found only in East Europe and India.

Latvians look like and consider themselves Nordics, evidenced through the strong cultural and religious influences gained over centuries during Germanic and Scandinavian colonization and settlement. Eastern Latvia (Latgale), however, retains a strong Polish and Russian cultural and linguistic influence. This highly literate society places strong emphasis upon education, which is free and compulsory until age 18. Average school expectancy for 5-year-olds (from pre-primary to higher education) was 17,8 in 2006. Most of the religious Latvians belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church but Eastern Latvia (Latgale) is predominantly Roman Catholic. In the late 18th century, a small but vibrant Herrnhutist movement played a significant part in the development of Latvian literary culture, before it was absorbed in to the mainstream Lutheran denomination.

The national language of the Latvian people is Latvian.

See also

• List of Latvians
• Demographics of Latvia
• History of Latvia
• Latgalians
• Curonians
• Kursi
• Semigallians
• Latvian name