Latvia's population has been multiethnic for centuries. In 1897 the first official census in this area suggested that Latvians formed 68.3 % of the total population of 1.93 million; Russians accounted for 12.0 %, Jews for 7.4 %, Germans for 6.2 %, and Poles for 3.4 %. The remainder were Lithuanians, Estonians, Gypsies, and various other nationalities.

The population of Latvia (2001 estimate) is about 2,385,231, yielding an average population density of 37 persons per sq km (97 per sq mi). Latvia is highly urbanized. Some 74 % of the population lives in urban areas, with nearly one-third of the total population residing in Riga. Other valuable cities include Daugavpils, an industrial center; and Liepaja, a seaport with an ice-free harbor. Numerous towns and small cities are located along the nation’s rivers, waterways, and coastal areas.

In the early 1990s Latvians made up little more than half of the total population, down from three-quarters before the Soviet occupation in 1940. During the Soviet time, immigration was far more remarkable than natural increase in accounting for population growth. Immigrants to Latvia were principally Russians and other Slavs. Irrespective of ethnic background, birth rates were low; indeed, they were insufficient to ensure population replacement. With freedom and the emergence of administrative controls over immigration from Russia and other parts of the former U.S.S.R., a major challenge was to offset the aging of the whole population, a serious problem even before freedom. Data from the 1980s suggest that Latvians were choosing to have larger families than in the past and larger families than the Slavic portion of the population. It was hoped that this tendency, combined with restrictions on immigration, would arrest the decline in the Latvian share of the population.