Study says Latvia's brain drain at 100,000 people since 2000

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Latvia has lost around 100,000 of its residents with higher education to emigration between 2000 and 2016, University of Latvia professor Mihails Hazans said in an interview with LNT commercial TV channel January 16.

Research shows that one in four people aged under 65 and one in three people aged between 25 and 34 have left Latvia this century, the expert said.

Professor Hazans said that the emigrants leaving Latvia are mainly people whose skills and professions are in high demand in Latvia, like IT specialists, engineers, medics. The government is spending considerable resources to train as many such professionals as possible.

The survey shows that 40 percent of the emigrants with higher education have left Latvia because of economic reasons. Some had been disappointed with processes in Latvia and others did not see a future perspective or wanted their children to have better opportunities in life.

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