The demographic situation in Latvia remains very bad, but it is not completely catastrophic, regardless of how it may seem from time to time, said demographer Ilmārs Mežs in an interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds.
He explained that, for example, the number of newborns in Latvia went down considerably after the first couple of curfews caused by the pandemic. However, this trend changed over time and the expected drop in the number of child births had almost equalized, showing only a drop of couple of percent when compared to the previous year.
«With that, it is bad, but there is no awful additional decline we had previously expected,» said the expert.
He admitted that the negative effect on Covid-19 on Latvia’s demographic indexes has been significant.
«If we put together the period of time between the end of 2020 and today, I believe we will see 6-7 thousand deaths,» said Mežs, outlining the deaths indirectly related to the pandemic.
He also said a portion of patients suffering from chronic illnesses left their respective health problems unattended will die sooner than they would have if there was no pandemic. This means the average life expectancy becomes shorter. It has already – in a couple of years of the pandemic it has become one year shorter, dropping below 75 years.
The demographer also said the tendency when the age of women who deliver their first child is also up in the world.
He said the state needs to find a way to create favourable conditions for families to feel save and make children when they want and however many they want.
Last year Latvia’s population declined by 17 500 people, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia. According to available data, there were 1.876 million people in Latvia at the start of 2022.
CSP Social Statistics Department director Baiba Zukula said that population decline observed in the last year is now close to the current population of Salaspils. This is due to the negative natural population growth, with mortality far exceeding birth rates.