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
Since the beginning of the 1990s, some Polish language schools were created besides the existing schools with Latvian and Russian language of instruction. Certain schools (e.g., Riga Dubnov Jewish Secondary school, founded in 1989, and Riga Ukrainian Secondary School, founded in 1991, which had originally used Ukrainian as language of instruction, but switched to Latvian in 1993/1994) now include in their curriculum lessons in respective minority languages. The number of Russian schools is decreasing, partly due to natural demographic decline and partly due to emigration, as the following table demonstrates, with some schools with apparent viability closed. 
As at 2007, there was also increasing number of minority children attending Latvian-language schools.
According to Education law, as adopted in 1998, the language of instruction in public secondary schools (Forms 10-12) had to be only Latvian since 2004. This has mostly affected Russian schools, some existing in Latvia without interruption since at least 1789. After protests in 2003 and 2004, the law was amended allowing to teach up to 40% of curricula in minority languages (Transition Rules) and allowing orphans to continue their education not only in Latvian, but also in the language he or she began it (Section 56).