Earlier, I did two posts about of people who have left Latvia for Ireland and UK. To summarize them briefly, Latvia lacks reliable statistics on this topic. Latvian statistics office only records the people who report their move to the authorities, obtaining a number of about 5,000 emigrants per year which is a major underestimate. Newspapers occasionally claim 100,000 or even 200,000 emigrants from Latvia to UK and Ireland. (Total population in Latvia 2 million 270 thousands 2007).

To find some reliable numbers, I looked at the statistics from UK and Ireland. Both of them maintain detailed records of how many Eastern Europeans arrived to work there. There are 25,956 Latvians who have registered with Irish authorities from May 2004 (the date when Latvia joined EU) and July 2007 (the most recent month for which they have data). UK reports 34,460 Latvian workers arriving there up to end of June 2007. Those are substantial numbers of people, although they are less than the wildest claims by media.

Also, looking for a better life in Ireland or UK is far from being specific to Latvians. There are substantial numbers of Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians there, as well. Latvia, however, has the second highest emigration rate in EU8. (Lithuania is the only country with a higher emigration rate.) By breaking down the numbers by year, we can see that the emigration is rapidly decreasing and the number of people who left Latvia in 2007 only a half of what it was in 2005.

Irish and UK data have one thing missing in them. Both countries register people who arrive there. They don’t record whether those people are still there or not. So, we know that there were 60,000 Latvians who worked in UK or Ireland at some point… but some of them may be back in Latvia now.

Now, there is a new set of data. In April 2006, Ireland had a census, recording everyone who was in the country on the census day. Here are the numbers:

55,076 Poles
19,912 Lithuanians
11,105 Latvians
7,377 Slovaks
4,371 Czechs
2,994 Hungarians

The number of Estonians was too small to make the press release.

Quite a few of those people who move to Ireland, stay there. But quite a few people also return to Latvia (or Poland and Estonia). Sometimes, the life in Ireland only looks better from a distance.

The data is from the last year. If the same trend is still true today, the number of Latvians who have moved to UK or Ireland and are still there, should be in the 30,000-40,000 range. Substantial but far from 100,000 numbers that get thrown around in the news.

This is one of the main problems for economy of Latvia.

Over the last years, tens of thousands of Latvians have left Latvia to search for a better life in Ireland. Over there, they would work long hours in jobs that “locals would not take”, as farm workers, supermarket cashiers or cleaners. Their income would be below-average by Irish standards but much more than what they would have earned in Latvia.

Some tables to have an overview about general situation. (http://latvianabroad.blogspot.com/2007/08/latvians-in-ireland-and-uk-numbers-part.html)

(More information: http://latviansonline.com/index.php/commentary/article/1253/)
(Video – Latvians in Ireland http://baltic-ireland.eu/-/index.php?p=725)