Riga population down to 658,000

RIGA - According to the Riga City Council’s data, the number of Rigans has reduced to 658,640 persons, reports LETA.

According to a census carried out in 2011, 13 percent of Rigans were below working age last year. 65 percent were of working age and 22 percent were above this age. The share of men in the total number of population amounted to 44 percent, the share of women stood at 56 percent. 42.5 percent of Rigans were Latvians, 40.7 percent - Russians, 4.1 percent - Belarusians, 3.8 percent - Ukrainians, 2 percent - Poles.

Head of Strategic Management Administration Armands Kruze, during the Finance and Administration Affairs Committee’s session today, emphasized that one of the greatest challenges for developing Riga, taking into account dwindling resident numbers, is to find out how to attract new residents since the situation is on the verge of "becoming catastrophic."

Global practice indicates - in order to keep current residents and attract new ones - it is highly important to create new jobs, said Kruze and added that resident numbers are dwindling throughout the country, but the situation is the most acute in Riga.