Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), to the east by the Russian Federation (276 km), and to the southeast by Belarus (141 km). Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden. The territory of Latvia covers 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi) and it has a temperate seasonal climate.

The official language of Latvia is Latvian, which belongs to the Baltic language group of the Indo-European language family.

There are significant numbers of atheists, perhaps a majority of the population. The largest religion is Christianity. About 7% of the population attends religious services regularly.

Traditional Latvian folklore, especially the dance of the Nabiha folk songs date back well over a thousand years. More than 1.2 million texts and 30,000 melodies of folk songs have been identified.