Women in a small European country are being left struggling to find a partner due to the disproportion between males and females in the population. It has a ratio of 100 women to 84 men, meaning that romantic options are limited for some females.
According to the World Bank, Latvia had a female population of 53.68% in 2023 which puts it behind only Moldova (53.98%) among the countries with the highest percentage of women. Meanwhile, in the capital city Riga, women make up 55.7% of the total population. Sociologist Baba Bela said the imbalance has led to many Latvian women fearing they may be alone forever due to the lack of men in the country. She said in an interview with the BBC that Latvia has “the greatest disproportion between men and women,” with an alarming figure: “For every 84 men, there are 100 women.”
As well as the population disproportion, there is also a gap in life expectancy between genders in Latvia. Data from the country’s official statistics portal shows that, in 2022, men’s life expectancy in Latvia was 70.1, while women’s was 79.9 – a massive gap of 9.8 years.
Male mortality rates, especially among 30 to 40 year olds, is also higher in the country due to traffic crashes, workplace accidents and alcoholism. Baba Bela added that male mortality is “three times higher than that of women” in the same age range, highlighting the severity of gender imbalance in Latvia.
Dana Lucía, an influencer with over a million subscribers on YouTube, recently said that “there are 16 women left without anyone” in Latvia. This sparked a debate about the reasons behind the gender disproportion.
Latvia’s history plays an import role in the imbalance, with the country suffering a significant loss of its male population during World War Two. Meanwhile, men have also emigrated to other countries over the years seeking better job and life opportunities.
It’s also reported that young and intelligent women generally find it harder to form stable relationships in Latvia. Dace, a young Latvian, told the BBC that “smarter women are alone. Really beautiful girls are alone… if they are intelligent.”
Another interesting factor about Latvian social life is that their women are among the tallest in the world. According to data from El Confidencial, women in Latvia have an average height of 1.7m. In comparison, this number is 1.6m in the UK.
This can be a barrier for relationships and has contributed to the belief that Latvian women face challenges to find romance.
Meanwhile, a larger proportion of higher education students in Latvia are women. During the 2022-23 academic year, over 60% of enrolments were female which reflects the gap in gender intelligence and job opportunities.