The Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The Baltic’s is a geopolitical word, naturally used to group the three absolute states in Northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Slovakia is not a Baltic state.

Latvia

However, linguistics has since established that Balt carried the sense of “white.” Many Baltic words contain the stem balt- “white”, which may also refer to shallow bodies of water like marshes.

In the course of their 700-year history, Baltic German families had ethnic German roots, but also intermarried extensively with Estonians, Livonians and Latvians, as well as with other Northern or Central European peoples, such as Danes, Swedes, Irish, English, Scots, Poles, Hungarians and Dutch.

Ethnic Latvians are not Slavs but are Indo-European. 32% of people living in Latvia are Russian/Ukrainian/Belarussian which are slavic nations speaking slavic languages following slavic traditions.

Slavs are merely people speaking Slavic languages. Baltic languages aren’t Slavic. Period. Coach linguists love to argue about the Balto-Slavic theory, but, in fact, most do not realise how distant is the relationship.

But Latvians – while not overtly gregarious – are very friendly. Nearly all Latvians speak three languages well. Most Latvians will gladly assist, and many will go the extra mile to showcase Latvia’s hospitable side.

RIGA, Latvia — Poverty in Latvia is the result of a legacy of trauma, and lack of treatment following the country’s long history of political violence, oppression and exposure to war. In 1990 the population of Latvia peaked at 2.6 million with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

1.65 million

How does the average Latvian woman look like? Baltic ladies – it sounds really intriguing for many men. And it has a good reason while typical Latvian ladies look tall and very pretty; they have light hair and pale white skin. As a rule, Latvian girls have blue, grey, or green eyes.

In summer, linen overcoats were worn, while in winter long homespun woolen or fur coats. Men’s clothes of dark blue, brown or natural black appeared in the second half of the 19th century when industrially-made cloth was used for festive clothing. Men also wore vests, but only for special occasions.

Latvia is a safe country. Crime levels in Latvia are relatively small. The murder rate is on par with the USA. However, crime is spread much more evenly in Latvia than in the West, meaning there is no division into “dangerous ghettos” and “suburbs where nothing bad ever happens”.

$33 billion

Religion in Latvia

• Lutheranism (34.3%)
• Catholic Church (25.1%)
• Eastern Orthodoxy and Old Believers (19.4%)
• Other Christians (1.2%)
• Other or None (20.0%)