<P> In some cities, e.g., Daugavpils and Rēzekne, ethnic Latvians constitute a minority of the total population . Despite the fact that the proportion of ethnic Latvians has been steadily increasing for more than a decade, ethnic Latvians also make up slightly less than a half of the population of the capital city of Latvia--Rīga . </P> <P> The share of ethnic Latvians had fallen from 77% (1,467,035) in 1935 to 52% (1,387,757) in 1989 . In 2011, there were even fewer Latvians than in 1989, though their share of the population was larger--1,285,136 (62.1% of the population). </P> <P> The sole official language of Latvia is Latvian, which belongs to the Baltic language sub-group of the Balto - Slavic branch of the Indo - European language family . Another notable language of Latvia is the nearly extinct Livonian language of the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, which enjoys protection by law; Latgalian--referred to as either a dialect or a distinct separate language of Latvian--is also formally protected by Latvian law but only as a historical variation of the Latvian language . Russian, which was widely spoken during the Soviet period, is still the most widely used minority language by far (about 34% speak it at home, including people who are not ethnically Russian). While it is now required that all school students learn Latvian, most schools also include English and either German or Russian in their curricula . English is widely accepted in Latvia, especially in business and tourism . As of 2014 there are 109 schools for minorities that use Russian as the language of instruction for 40% of subjects (the rest 60% of subjects are taught in Latvian). </P> <P> On 18 February 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language . According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1% . </P>

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