Latvia

Latvia

Latvia ranks 52nd in number of biographies on Pantheon, behind Estonia, Slovenia, and Lithuania. Memorable people born in present day Latvia include Sergei Eisenstein, Wilhelm Ostwald, and Mark Rothko. Memorable people who died in Latvia include Gotthard Kettler, Kim Ki-duk, and Jacob Kettler. Latvia has been the birth place of many politicians, and athletes and the death place of many writers, and politicians.

Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi), with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians, who are the titular nation and comprise 63.0% of the country's population, belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population; 37.7% of the population speak Russian as their native tongue. Read more on Wikipedia