Latvian language
The history of the Latvian language (cf. below) has placed it in a peculiar position for a language of its size whereby it is spoken by a large number of non-native speakers as compared to native speakers. The immigrant and minority population in Latvia is 700,000 people: Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, and others. The majority of immigrants came to Latvia between 1940–1991; supplementing pre-existing ethnic minority communities (Latvian Germans, Latvian Jews). In a recent survey, 60% of Latvia's ethnic minorities described their knowledge of Latvian as fluent. Fluency in Latvian is prevalent among the younger generations of the minorities.
Russian language in Latvia
In 1989 Russian was the native language to 42% inhabitants, including 8% of population who were non-Russians, while 39% inhabitants spoke it fluently as a second language. From 1989 to 1990 an average of 47.5% pupils had enrolled in schools with Russian as the language of tuition, and the number was even higher (69.3%) in urban centers, suggesting that not only an overwhelming majority of non-Latvians, but also some Latvians had enrolled in Russian-language schools.