The number of births kept declining and for the first did not reach 10 thousand over a period of nine months. The highest number of births – 1,132 – was recorded in July while the lowest – 1,029 – in February, the statistical office said on Tuesday.
Steeper drop in births among unemployed mothers
The number of births has fallen by 4.3 thousand or 22.9% over the last five years 1. Increasingly fewer children are born to unemployed mothers (i.e., those seeking a job or inactive), namely, 1.1 thousand or 28.1% fewer than in 2019.
The figure for employed mothers, however, has gone down by 3.1 thousand or 22.0%. Regional breakdown of the births among employed mothers shows decline of 25.7% in Riga region, 20.5% in Zemgale, 19.0% in Latgale, 18.8% in Kurzeme and 15.2% in Vidzeme.
Number of deaths also declining
In the first nine months of the year, 19,531 deaths were registered, which is 1,018 deaths or 5.0% fewer than in the same period a year ago. The registered figure is the smallest for the respective period since 1971.
Over the nine-month period, July and February were the only months with a smaller number of deaths than a year ago (20 and 3 deaths more, respectively). Mortality in the other seven months was lower than a year ago.
Negative natural population change resulted in a population decline of 9.8 thousand.
Number of marriages keeps going down
During the nine months of 2024, 8,374 marriages were registered, which is 537 or 6.0% fewer than in the corresponding period a year ago
On 1 October 2024, Latvia provisionally had a population of 1 million 857.4 thousand, which is 15.1 thousand people fewer than on 1 January 2024. and 320 marriages or 3.7% fewer than in 2020 when due to the pandemic gatherings were restricted.