The capital of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltic States with a population of 614,618 (2021) which is a third of Latvia's population and one-tenth of the three Baltic states' combined population. It is the political, economic, and cultural center of the country. Located on both banks of the Daugava river the city lies on the Gulf of Riga where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km2 (118.60 sq mi) and lies 1–10 m (3 ft 3 in–32 ft 10 in) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.
The river Daugava has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Vikings' Dvina-Dnieper navigation route to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbour 15 km (9.3 mi) upriver from the mouth of the Daugava — the site of today's Riga — has been recorded, as Duna Urbs, as early as the 2nd century. It was settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe.
Riga began to develop as a centre of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages. Riga's inhabitants occupied themselves mainly with fishing, animal husbandry, and trading, later developing crafts (in bone, wood, amber, and iron).
An ancient settlement of the Livs and Kurs, Riga emerged as a trading post in the late 12th century. Seagoing ships found a natural harbour where the small Ridzene River once flowed into the Daugava, a major trade route to points east and south from the Viking Age onward. Albert of Buxhoevden arrived in 1199 with 23 ships of Crusaders and established the military Order of the Brothers of the Sword (reorganized in 1237 as the Livonian Order, a branch of the Teutonic Order). The city of Riga, founded in 1201, was the seat of Albert’s bishopric (archbishopric in 1253) and a base for conquering the lands of Livonia to the northeast, Courland to the west, and Semigallia to the south. The city joined the Hanseatic League in 1282 and became the dominant centre of trade on the Baltic Sea’s eastern shore. The Reformation gained a foothold in Riga in the 1520s; the Livonian Order was secularized, and, along with the Livonian Confederation, dissolved in 1561.
Latvia was occupied and annexed by the Soviets in 1940, and Riga lost thousands of people in 1940–41 to Soviet deportations and executions. Nazi Germany occupied the city from 1941 to 1944 during World War II, making it the administrative capital of Ostland, a territory encompassing Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Belarus. More than 25,000 of the city’s Jews were imprisoned in the Riga ghetto, shot in the Rumbula forest, and buried in mass graves. The Soviets returned in October 1944, and for the next four decades Riga was the Soviet Baltic Military District’s command post. The population vacuum created by war deaths, emigration, and deportations was filled by Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians who settled the Baltic region as part of a Soviet internal immigration policy that continued through the 1980s. The city was made a Soviet leader in metalworking as well as in the production of railroad cars and electronics. Riga’s hydroelectric power station went online in 1974.
Latvia declared renewed independence in May 1990, mobilizing nonviolent resistance to achieve that goal in August 1991. Monuments near Riga’s canal mark the spot where five civilians were killed by Soviet soldiers during the independence struggle. Latvia was admitted to the United Nations in autumn 1991 and joined the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance in 2004. Riga hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003, the NATO summit in 2006, and Latvia’s EU presidency in 2015.
Today Riga’s port facilitates export and transit trade from Russia and Belarus to European ports and beyond; a daily ferry carries passengers and cars to Stockholm. The Via Baltica highway is a major trucking route to Tallinn, Kaunas, and Warsaw. Riga International Airport is the hub of the national airline, airBaltic, and is served by daily flights to most European countries. Riga’s factories, many of them now affiliates of transnational corporations, build and repair ships, machine tools, rolling stock, diesel engines, and streetcars. Biotechnology and information technology are growing economic sectors, and services, notably tourism, are increasingly important. Riga’s municipal government is typically formed by a coalition of diverse political parties. The city’s Russian community, accounted for some two-fifths of Riga’s population in the early 21st century.
