Latvian residents’ support to EU membership is highest in history – Kaktins

RIGA – Latvian residents’ support to Latvia’s EU membership at present is the highest in the country’s history, said Arnis Kaktins, the head of SKDS pollster, in a conference on Latvia’s EU membership today.

Kaktins said that when Latvia joined the EU, one third of residents believes that the EU membership is a good thing. During the economic crisis in 2009 and 2010, this indicator dropped, but since 2014 it has been rising. According to the latest data, in the first quarter of this year, 46% of respondents said that Latvia’s EU membership is a good thing.

Residents, aged 15-24 (64 percent), and 25-34 (58 percent) most often believes that Latvia’s EU membership is a good thing. EU membership supporters were recorded also in other age groups – 43 percent in the group of 35-44 years old people, 39 percent in the group pf 45-54 years old people.

The most passive attitude was voiced in the age group of 55-64 and 46 percent of respondents belonging to this group said that the EU membership is neither good, nor bad.

At the same time, EU memberships was viewed as a bad thing by 15 percent of 64-75 years old people, 13 percent of 45-54 years old people, and 12 percent of the people at the age of 35-44 and 55-64.