Latvia’s median age rises to 44 years, population down by 14,000 / Article

On 1st January 2025, the median age of the EU’s population reached 44.9 years, according to Eurostat data published on February 13th. This means that half of the people in the EU were older than 44.9 years, while the other half was younger. Across the EU, it ranged from 39.6 years in Ireland to 49.1 years in Italy.

Latvia was close to, but slightly below, the EU median age figure at 44.4 years, a rise of 1.7 years in the decade since 2015 when the figure was 42.7 years. Going further back still, in 2005 Latvia’s median age was 39.3 years. 

At EU level, the median age has increased by 2.1 years since 2015, when it was 42.8 years. Increases were recorded in all EU countries, except Germany and Malta (each -0.4 years).

The ageing of the population was most pronounced in Slovakia and Cyprus, where the median increased by 4.0 years, followed by Italy (+3.9 years), Greece and Poland (each +3.8 years) and Portugal (+3.7 years).

On 1 January 2025, the estimated median age of the native-born population in EU countries was 2.1 years higher than that of the foreign-born population (45.2 years vs. 43.1 years).

Separate provisional demographic statistics published by the Latvian Central Statistical Bureau show that 11 637 children were born in Latvia during 2025.

Negative natural population change resulted in a decline of 14.0 thousand people over the period, and on 1 January 2026 Latvia provisionally had a population of 1,823,000.

The highest number of births was registered in Q3 2025 (3 223 children) and the lowest in Q4 2025 (2 754 children). Compared with 2024, births declined by 9.7 % (1 250 children), marriages increased by 4.7 %, and deaths fell by 3.7 %.

July, August, September and October each recorded more than a thousand births – a threshold last surpassed in October 2024. In all other months of the year, the number of births was under 1 000.

Last year, 25 677 deaths were registered, which is 984 deaths or 3.7 % fewer than in 2024. Q1 2025 showed the sharpest year-on-year decrease (down by 586), while Q3 2025 recorded a slight increase (up by 66 compared with the same quarter a year earlier).

A total of 10 683 marriages were concluded in 2025, showing a year-on-year increase of 4.7 % (478 marriages). Q3 2025 saw the highest number of marriages – 4 696, while Q1 2025 recorded the lowest number – 1 417. 

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