In the first seven months of this year, the most popular name for newborn girls was Emilia, while for boys it was Oliver. In second place among girls' names is Sofia, followed by Amelia, Emma, Alice, Olivia, Marta, Elizabeth, Esther, and Anna. As for boys, in addition to Oliver, parents most often chose names such as Mark, Theodore, Karlis, Lukas, Emil, August, Robert, Richard, and Jakub. At the same time, the demographic situation is concerning. The natural population decline has become even more noticeable over the year, with the number of children decreasing by 9,200 compared to last year, or by 2.7%. Considering that between 14,000 and 18,000 residents leave Latvia each year for other countries, it turns out that children make up half or more of those who have left. In the capital, the proportion of children is 17%. Meanwhile, in the regions located near Riga, people are much more willing to have and raise children. In particular, in the Marupe region, the proportion of children was 29.2% (a record for the country), in the Adazi region – 24.8%, and in the Kekava region – 24.4%. The lowest proportion of children, as expected, is observed in Latgale – 15.5%. In the Kraslava, Augsdaugava, and Ludza regions, the situation is even worse: 12.1%, 13.1%, and 13.9%, respectively. Overall, as noted by the Central Statistical Bureau, at the beginning of this year, there were 334,000 children under the age of 17 living in Latvia, which constitutes 18.5% of the total population.
