Latvia is a northern European country on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, with a territory of 24,950 sq. miles. It is generally flat and forested, with higher elevations in the northeast and east, where there are numerous lakes. The original inhabitants were Indo-European-speaking Balt tribes and Finno-Ugric Livs, of whom only a small group has survived on the northwestern shore and in some towns. Latvia s present population is more than two and a half million, of whom almost a million live in its capital, Riga.