The Republic of Latvia is a country in Northern Europe with a population of approximately 2,300,000. Latvia borders Estonia and Lithuania and shares a maritime border with Sweden. The parliament is elected by popular vote every four years, and the official language of the country is Latvian. Latvia became a member of the World Trade Organization in 1999, the European Union in 2004, and NATO in 2004. Latvia has 26 districts, and the government is trying to adopt the euro as the country's currency. Latvia is covered with trees and has over 12,000 small rivers and over 3,000 lakes. The weather is cool in the summer and wet in the winter. While most of the population is Christian, there are close to 10,000 Jews whose ancestors fled the Soviet Union in World War II. During the war, the Jewish population of Latvia was close to 93,479--most of whom were murdered. Latvia has a professional football and hockey league, (even though basketball is the national sport) and has participated in the 2002 and 2006 Olympics. The Ice Hockey world championships took place in Riga in 2006.

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