RIGA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Latvia, with a national population of around 1.9 million, recorded an 11.5-percent drop in births last year, the national statistics office said Wednesday.
With 14,121 newborns registered in 2023, the number of births decreased by 1,833 from a year before, statistics showed.
Last year's fourth quarter saw the smallest number of babies, with 3,299 births, marking a 2.7-percent decrease year-on-year. A drop in births was recorded for each month of 2023 compared to the corresponding month of 2022.
Meanwhile, deaths in Latvia fell 9.8 percent year-on-year in 2023 to 27,724. The statistics office said that compared to 2021, when the mortality rate peaked amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of deaths fell 19.9 percent last year.
Since 2017, the number of births in Latvia has been decreasing by around 1,000 annually. .
