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50 free Latvia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Latvia has one of the oldest flags in the world, a capital that is a third Art Nouveau, a song festival that has run since 1873, a midsummer night when the whole country heads for the countryside, and a black herbal liqueur whose recipe is known to three people. It also spent most of the last century fighting for, losing and regaining its independence, and joined a 675-km human chain to do it. This Latvia trivia quiz covers all of it. Forty-five questions run from geography (Riga, the Daugava and Gauja, Gaiziņkalns, the Gulf of Riga, the four regions, the forests) through history (the Baltic tribes, Bishop Albert, the Hansa, Livonia, the Duchy of Courland and its colonies, Swedish and Russian rule, 18 November 1918, Ulmanis, the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, deportations, the Singing Revolution and Baltic Way, 1991, NATO and the euro) to culture and sport (the flag, the Freedom Monument, the Song and Dance Festival, Jāņi, rupjmaize, Black Balsam, Baryshnikov, ice hockey, Porziņģis, Štrombergs). Roughly a third are easy, a third medium, and the rest are for people who really know the Baltics. Every answer has been checked against encyclopaedia and official pages, so the dates, numbers and names are ones you can rely on.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Latvia?
Riga
It holds about a third of the national population and is the second-largest city in the Baltics.
Q 02Latvia is one of the three Baltic states, together with Lithuania and which country to its north?
Estonia
It also borders Russia and Belarus and shares a maritime boundary with Sweden.
Q 03Latvia's capital was founded in which year?
1201
Bishop Albert's city joined the Hanseatic League in 1282, and its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Q 04Latvia's capital lies at the mouth of which river?
Daugava
The river is 1,005 km long in total, with 352 km on Latvian soil; the Gauja is the longest river entirely within the country.
Q 05Which is the longest river lying entirely within Latvia, at 452 km?
Gauja
It gives its name to the country's oldest national park, created in 1973.
Q 06What is Latvia's highest point, at just 312 m?
Gaiziņkalns
A tower was built on it to out-top Estonia's 318-m Suur Munamägi, and it has three ski slopes.
Q 07Roughly what percentage of Latvia's territory is covered by forest?
56%
That is the fifth-highest share in the EU, after Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Slovenia; pine, birch and spruce dominate.
Q 08What are Latvia's four historical and cultural regions, recognised in its constitution?
Courland, Latgale, Vidzeme, Zemgale
Selonia, part of Zemgale, is sometimes counted as a fifth, and the country also has five planning regions.
Q 09The name Latvija derives from which ancient Baltic tribe?
Latgalians
The Curonians, Selonians and Semigallians, plus the Finnic Livonians, formed the rest of the ethnic core.
Q 10The ancient Balts traded which local product with Rome and Byzantium?
Amber
Vikings and traders from Egypt and Greece also sought the amber found along the Baltic coast.
Q 11Medieval Latvia and southern Estonia formed a crusader state called Terra Mariana, or what?
Livonia
The name means "Land of Mary"; the Livonian War of 1558–1583 later delivered it to Poland–Lithuania.
Q 12The Duchy of Courland founded 17th-century colonies in the Gambia and on which Caribbean island?
Tobago
Jacob Fort on the Gambia River came in 1651 and the Tobago colony a year later.
Q 13Under which country's rule in the 17th century did Riga become the largest city in that empire?
Sweden
Northern Livonia went to Sweden after the Polish–Swedish War, and western Latvia adopted Lutheranism.
Q 21The peaceful movement that led to Baltic independence from 1987 is known as what?
The Singing Revolution
The first big demonstrations were held in 1987 at the Freedom Monument in Riga.
Q 22How long was the 1989 human chain of about two million people across the three Baltic states?
675 km
The Baltic Way marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact.
Q 23On what date in 1991 did Latvia restore full independence?
21 August
It followed the failed Soviet coup in Moscow; the transitional period had begun with a declaration on 4 May 1990.
Q 14In which year did Russia annex Courland, bringing all of modern Latvia into the empire?
1795
It came in the Third Partition of Poland; Vidzeme had gone to Russia in 1721 and Latgale in 1772.
Q 15On what date did Latvia proclaim its independence in 1918?
18 November
The People's Council entrusted Kārlis Ulmanis with forming the first government; the day is still the national holiday.
Q 16Who staged a bloodless coup in 1934 and ruled Latvia as dictator until 1940?
Kārlis Ulmanis
He had been the country's first prime minister and served four times in the office before taking the presidency for himself.
Q 17The secret protocol of which 1939 agreement assigned Latvia to the Soviet sphere of influence?
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Soviets forced a mutual assistance pact that October and incorporated Latvia on 5 August 1940.
Q 18How many Latvians were deported or killed by the Soviets in less than a year before Operation Barbarossa?
At least 34,250
Most were sent to Siberia, where an estimated 40 percent died.
Q 19Some 30,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto were murdered in late 1941 in which forest?
Rumbula
The killings made room for Jews being deported to the ghetto from Germany and the West.
Q 20By 1959, after 400,000 Russian settlers arrived, what share of the population was ethnic Latvian?
62%
Today Latvians are about 65.5% and Russians almost a quarter of the population.
Q 24Latvia joined both NATO and the European Union in which year?
2004
President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, the first female head of state in the former Soviet bloc, championed both.
Q 25Latvia adopted the euro on 1 January of which year, replacing the lats?
2014
Late-2013 polls showed only 45% support for the switch, but it rose to about 53% within weeks.
Q 26In May 2023 Latvia's parliament elected Edgars Rinkēvičs, making him the EU's first what?
Openly gay head of state
The president is chosen by the Saeima every four years rather than by popular vote.
Q 27Latvia's red-white-red flag is first mentioned in a chronicle describing a battle of about which year?
1279
Latgalian tribes from Cēsis carried "a red flag with a white stripe", making it one of the oldest flags in the world.
Q 28How does the white stripe on Latvia's flag compare in width with each red stripe?
Half as broad
The government re-adopted the traditional flag on 27 February 1990, before independence was regained.
Q 29The female figure atop Riga's Freedom Monument is affectionately known by what name?
Milda
The 42-m monument, designed by Kārlis Zāle under the motto "Shine like a star!", was unveiled in 1935.
Q 30Roughly what fraction of the buildings in central Riga are Art Nouveau?
One third
Most date from 1904 to 1914, and architects included Mikhail Eisenstein, father of the film director.