Latvia
The share of ethnic Latvians had fallen from 77% (1,467,035) in 1935 to 52% (1,387,757) in 1989. In 2011, there were even fewer Latvians than in 1989, though their share of the population was larger – 1,285,136 (62.1% of the population).
The sole official language of Latvia is Latvian, which belongs to the Baltic language sub-group of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Another notable language of Latvia is the nearly extinct Livonian language of the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, which enjoys protection by law; Latgalian – referred to as either a dialect or a distinct separate language of Latvian – is also formally protected by Latvian law but only as a historical variation of the Latvian language. Russian, which was widely spoken during the Soviet period, is still the most widely used minority language by far (in 2011, 34% spoke it at home, including people who were not ethnically Russian).
While it is now required that all school students learn Latvian, most schools also include English, Russian and German in their curricula. English and Russian are also widely accepted in Latvia, especially in business and tourism. there were 109 schools for minorities that use Russian as the language of instruction for 40% of subjects (the remaining 60% of subjects are taught in Latvian).
Language policy in Latvia
The Law on Electronic Media prescribes that national and regional electronic media need to broadcast at least 65 % in Latvian language (section 32). Besides, films aired in any channel should be dubbed in Latvian or to have original soundtrack and Latvian subtitles; TV broadcasts in languages other than Latvian, except news, live events, language learning broadcasts and retranslated content, must be subtitled in Latvian.(Section 28). The same concerns films shown in cinemas, according to Section 17 of Official Language Law. Until a judgement of the Constitutional Court upon request of 24 ForHRUL MPs (delivered in 2003), broadcasting in minority languages was limited for private TV and radio (originally within 30%, since 1998 within 25%).