Provisional data from the Central Statistical Bureau show that the number of births registered over the first nine months of 2018 (14 680 children) is 1,267 children or 8 % fewer than the number registered in the same period of 2017.
At the same time, mortality rates show a slightly upward trend. In the first nine months of this year, 21,616 deaths were registered, which is 103 deaths more than in the nine months of the previous year.
Therefore the demographic balance in Latvia remains negative. During the first nine months of 2018, as the number of deaths exceeded the number of births, the population of Latvia declined by 6,936 people (in the corresponding period of 2017 it was 5,566).
On 1 October 2018, the provisional population of Latvian residents totaled 1,923,000.
